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Great Americans of History 



John Hancock 



A CHARACTER SKETCH 



BY 

JOHN R. MUSICK 

AUTHOR OF 

'The Columbian Historical Novels," "Hawaii, Our New Possessions," etc. 



WITH AN ESSAY ON THE PATRIOT BY 

G. MERCER ADAM* 

Late Editor of "Self Culture" Magazine, Et(:.. Etc. 



TOGBTHBR WITH 

ANECDOTES, CHARACTERISTICS, AND CHRONOLOGY 

BY 

L. B. VAUGHAN and OTHERS. 



H. G. CAMPBELL PUBLISHING COMPANY. 

MILWAUKEE. 
1903. 






THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS. 

Two Copies Recaivet) 

SEP 23 \^m 

CLAStf OL XXc No 
COPY B. 



GREAT AMERICANS OF HISTORY SERIES. 



Thomas Jefferson, by Edward S. 
Ellis, A. M., Author of 'The 
People's Standard History of the 
United States," etc. With Sup 
plementary Essay by G. Mercer 
Adam, Late Editor of "Self-Cult- 
ure" Magazine, with an Account 
of the Louisiana Purchase, to- 
gether with Anecdotes, Charac- 
teristics, Chronology, and Say- 
ings. 

James Otis, by John Clark Rid- 
path, LL. D., Author of "Rid- 
path's History of the United 
States," etc. With Supplemen- 
tary Essay by G. Mercer Adam, 
Late Editor of "Self-Culture" 
Magazine; together with Anec- 
dotes, Characteristics, and Chro- 
nology. 

John Hancock, by John R. Musick, 
Author of "The Columbian His- 
torl<-al Novels," etc. With Sup- 
plementary Essay by G. Mercer 
Adam, Late Editor of "Self-Cul- 
ture" Magazine; together with 
Anecdotes, Characteristics, and 
Chronology. 

Samuel Adams, by Samuel Fallows, 
]). D., LL. D., Ex-Supt. of Pub- 
lic Instruction of Wisconsin; 
Ex-Pres. Illinois Wesleyan Uni- 
versity. With Supplementary 
Essay'by G- Mercer Adam, Late 
Editor of "Self-Culture" Maga- 
zine; toc^ther with Anecdotes, 
<Characf«a'iS''i{s,&p«l Chronology. 

BJin'JamiN" •Framklin, by Frank 
■ • .Stron({„ JPli. JD.^ Lecturer on 
United Slates History, Yale Uni- 
versity, New Haven, Conn. With 

• SiUJplemental Essay by G. Mercer 
V^lapi' Late* pdi tar of " Selt-Cul- 
•turtv' MagacBie,* etc., and a 

.* tliirracte-StKlv tfV Prof. Charles 
K. EdQnindsrPhTD.,ot Johns Hop- 
kins U'liversity; together with 
Anecdotes, Characteristics, and 
Chronology. 

John Adams, by Samuel Willard. 
LL. D., Author of "Synopsis of 
History," etc. With Supplemen- 
tary Essay by G. Mercer Adam. 
Late Editor of "Seif-Culture'' 
Magazine; together with Anec- 
dotes. Characteristics, and Chro- 
nology. 

iJl.OO per Volume. 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON, by Edward 
S. Ellis, A. M., Author of "The 
People's Standard History of the 
United States," etc. With Sup- 
plementary Essay by G. Mercer 
Adam, Late Editor of "Self-Cul- 
ture" Magazine, etc ; together 
with Anecodotes, Charact.'ris- 
tics,and Chronology. 

George Washington, by Eugene 
Parsons, Ph. D., Lecturer on 
American History, etc. With 
Supplementary Essay by G.Mer- 
cer Adam, Late Editor of "Self- 
Culture" Magazine; and an Ar- 
ticle by Prof. Henry Wade 
Rogers, LL. D., of Yaie Univer- 
sity; together with Anecdotes, 
Characteristics, and Chronology. 

JOHN Randolph, by Richard Heath 
Dabney, M. A.. Ph. D., Professor 
of History, University of Vir- 
ginia. With Supplementary 
Essay by G. Mercer Adam, Late 
Editor of "Self Culture" Maga- 
zine; together with Anecdotes, 
Characteristics, and Chronology. 

Daniel Webster, by Elizabeth A. 
Reed. A. M., L. H. D., Ex-Pres. 
Hlinois Woman's Press Associa- 
tion. With Supplementary Es- 
say by G. Mercer Adam. Late Edi- 
tor of "Self-Culture" Magazine; 
together with Anecdotes. Char- 
acteristics, and Chronology. 

HENRY Clay, by H. W. Caldwell, 
A.M., Pn. B., Professor of Ameri- 
can History, University of Ne- 
braska. With Supplementary 
Essay by G. Mercer Adam, Late 
Editor of ".Self-Culture" Maga- 
zine; together with Anecdotes, 
Characteristics, and Chronology. 

ABRAHAM Lincoln, by Robert Dick- 
inson Sheppard, D. D., Professor 
of American and English His- 
tory, Northwestern University. 
With Supplementary Essay by G. 
Mercer Adam, Late Editor of 
" Seif-Culture" Magazine, etc., 
also Suggestions from the Life 
ol Lincoln by Prof. Francis W. 
Shepardson, Ph D., of the Uni- 
versity of Chicago. Together 
with Anecdotes. Characteristics, 
and Chronology. 



$13. oo per Set. 



H. G. 



CAMPBELL PUBLISHING CO. 

Milwaukee. 



Copyright, 1898, 
By THE UNIVERSITY ASSOCIATION 

Copyright, 1905, 
By H. G. CAMPBELL PUBLISHING CO 




u^^s 



mm 

, lllllBSjM III 





In these modern days of iconoclasm and skepticism, 
many honored and beloved heroes of the past are lowered 
to the common level of ordinary mankind. While icon- 
oclasm is certainly carried to an extreme, nevertheless 
it is productive of good, in teaching that the great men 
of history whom we worshiped, were after all, the com- 
mon clay of ordinary mortals. 

Some were great men, and some were bad men, hard- 
ly worthy a place on the page of history. This tenden- 
cy of writers of recent years to disparage the founders of 
our government, and heroes who won the independence 
we enjoy, with their blood, is possibly the natural reac- 
tion of writers of the preceding age to canonize them . 

While "our forefatliers" were only human, and by no 
means demigods as some past writers would represent 
them, they on the other hand were not the coarse, bigot- 
ed, evil minded individuals, represented by the critic of 
the present. 

In defence of them we are pleased to state that after a 
careful study and research, we conclude that most of 



6 JOHN HANCOCK. 

them were honorable gentlemen, whose society was ele- 
vating, morals good, with pleasing address, and many 
like Washington, would "scorn some of the acts common 
with politicians of the present." 

The charge of bribery to obtain position in any of 
the legislative bodies was never laid at their door, nor 
were corruption funds known at that time. 

A recent writer in an American magazine with little 
reverence for the man whose bold signature first strikes 
the eye in glancing over the list of signers to the Dec- 
laration of Independence, asserts that John Hancock 
was a smuggler, a defaulter, and a man whose "private 
character will not bear a too close inspection." That 
the writer is prejudiced is evident from his failure to 
give the evidence for, as well as against the accused. 

John Hancock, whose chief celebrity is his signature 
to the Declaration of Independence, was born of respect- 
able parents, at Ouincy, Massachusetts, January 12, 
1737. Perhaps less is known of him than of any Revo- 
lutionary hero, or any other person who had so much to 
do with the growth of liberty and independence. 

His family was not only respectable but influential, 
and his uncle who seemed to have had much to do with 
his career, was at one time one of the wealthiest, if not 
the wealthiest man in Boston. 

Hancock grew up from early boyhood accustomed to 
polite society. History fails to record the fact that he 
developed any rare genius early in youth, but was sim- 
ply a respectable, good mannered lad, obedient to his 
superiors, and a faithful scholar in school. He early 



JOHN HANCOCK. 7 

acquired a gentility which followed him through life. 
He entered Harvard College at an early age, and his ad- 
. van cement must have been phenomenal, for he was 
graduated at the age of seventeen. 

Hancock's subsequent connection with Harvard was 
such as to give rise to grave suspicions. Being treasurer 
of the College he was so slow in making his settlements 
as to afford his enemies an opportunity for censure, yet 
the best authority to be obtained acquits him of any 
blame. On this subject Burrage says: 

"Quincy, in his history of Harvard University, anim- 
adverts strongly on Hancock, saying: 'His connection 
with the college was troublesome and vexatious.' As 
early as 1774, when they sent for the papers at Phila- 
delphia, where Hancock had taken them for safety, 
seeming to fear he would lose them, the officers com- 
menced to write and almost dictate to him about his 
accounts. Obtaining the documents they displaced him 
from his honorable office in 1777; an act which Han- 
cock and his friends never forgave. 

"Hancock frequently assured them that he had the in- 
terest of the college at heart as much as any one, and 
would pursue it; and the records show that he honora- 
bly fulfilled the terms of his uncle's intended bequest of 
Five Hundred Pounds to the library, and made liberal 
gifts to the same himself 

"The officers passed a vote of thanks for this lasting 
monument of his bounty and public affection. In 1788 
he made a final settlement, but it was left to his heirs to 
pay over the full amount due, except the charge for 



8 JOHN HANCOCK. 

compound interest" The president of the New Eng- 
land Historical Society, January i, 1896, in reference to 
the matter of Hancock's shortage in his accounts, says: 

"Hancock had a very long controversy with the 
authorities at Harvard College about the funds in his 
hands as treasurer. His action in this matter is perfect- 
ly unaccountable. It vexed the treasurer who succeeded 
him, and all the committees appointed to settle with 
him, to the last degree, and the alumni never forgave 
him. The college lost nothing but rather gained by the 
delay, except in the matters of interest, which his exec- 
utors would not pay." 

The friendly reader who follows the narrative of Han- 
cock through the troublous days of 1774 to 1777 when 
he was removed as treasurer of Harvard, may easily find 
abundant excuse for his course of action, which when 
we take into consideration the fact, that defalcation was 
never his design, ought to exonerate him from any evil 
intent. 

Hancock at this time had his enemies as well as 
friends; enemies who were ever ready to criticise that 
portion of his conduct which they could not understand, 
and this may in part account for some of the scurrillous 
stories derogatory to his honesty. 

After graduating from Harvard College at the early 
age of seventeen, he was taken under the guardian- 
ship of a pious uncle, who made him a clerk in his 
counting room, where with his native aptitude, he soon 
became acquainted with the various routine of business. 

Hancock was quite in contrast with his Puritanic as- 



JOHN HANCOCK. 9 

sociates, the Adamses, being more of a Cavalier than a 
Puritan, yet the kindliest of feeling seems to have exist- 
ed between them. 

He seems to have been the leader of fashion — the gen- 




Old Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass. 

teel aristocrat of tl^e day. Here is a description of him 
when a young man. 

"He wore a coat of scarlet, lined with silk, and em- 
broidered with gold, white satin embroidered waist coat, 
dark satin small-clothes, white silk stockings, and shoes 
with silver buckles." 

It seems that this attire with the "three cornered gold 
laced hat constituted the gentleman of the period." His 
equipage, a coach and six blooded bays, were such as 
had never been seen in Boston, and caused many pious 



lo JOHN HANCOCK. 

old Puritans to regard him as "a too worldly man." He 
was exceedingly fond of music, dancing, parties, rich 
wines, dinners and all that sort of thing called elegant 
pleasures, so horrifying in the eyes of the Puritans. But 
his wealth and exalted position placed him above reach 
of criticism. 

His love of society and rounds of pleasure seemed in 
no way to interfere with his business advancement. He 
neglected nothing, was attentive to the instructions of 
his superiors, and quick to comprehend. His uncle was 
so well pleased with his rapid advancement and honest 
habits, that in the year 1760 he entrusted him with a 
mission to England for the transaction of some very im- 
portant business. 

It was a rare opportunity for a youth of twenty-three, 
and }'oung Hancock with his keen perception and close 
observation was just the person to improve it. On this 
occasion he was present at the funeral rites of King 
George II, and was also present at the coronation cere- 
monies of his successor, George HI. Little did Hancock 
dream while witnessing those ceremonies which invest- 
ed the new monarch with the insignia of royalty, that a 
tyrant was being installed over the colonies, who by 
means both bold and insidious, would attempt the 
abridgement of the liberties of the American people. 

Least of all did the young man suspect that the king 
whose coronation he was witnessing, would in less than 
fifteen years proscribe him for upholding the standard of 
liberty, and place a price on his head. 

At this time the feeling- between the colonies and 



JOHN HANCOCK. n 

mother country was good. The people expected much 
from the new king, as they do from every new ruler. 
The importance of the American colonies had long been 
appreciated by the British sovereign and ministry. 
English merchants found them a profitable market for 
the products of their looms and factories, and an import- 
ant visitor from them, such as the representative of a 
great mercantile estab- 
lishment was warmly 
welcomed. 

Having been reared 
in the best society and 
a graduate of an insti- 
tution, which even at 
that time was recog- 
nized as possessing su- 
perior advantages, as 
well as the representa- 
tive of a wealthy house, 
Hancock gained admis- 
sion to the best society. 

It is to his credit that 
all the flattery and pet- 
ting to which he was 
subjected, did not turn 
his head and make an out and out Tory of him. Per- 
haps few young men of the present day could have re- 
sisted the snares set for Hancock. But the liberty tree 
was too firmly grown in his heart for flattery or cajolery 
to supplant it. 




Liberty Tree, Boston Common. 



12 JOHN HANCOCK. 

His stay in England won for him many warm friends 
both in a social and business way. Stern business ne- 
cessities forced him to make his visit much shorter than 
he wished, and it was with great regret than he left 
England for Boston. 

Soon after his return home his uncle died, leaving 
him the sole possessor of his princely fortune — the larg- 
est perhaps in the province of IVIassachusetts. 

Possessed of an extraordinary mind, and deeply con- 
versant with political science, he soon after entering into 
possession of his fortune, began to devote himself to the 
politics of the day. In principle he was devotedly dem- 
ocratic, though liberal in his views. His espousing the 
cause of the people against the king was no doubt a 
surprise to some of the nobility who had safely counted 
on him falling into the Tory ranks. 

Hancock with his wealth, influence, business ability, 
statesmanship and sagacity, proved a valuable acquisi- 
tion to the Whig cause. Efforts were made by the roy- 
alists early in the struggle to secure him, but without 
avail. 

Though reared in the lap of luxury', he had been 
rocked in the cradle of liberty, and prized the cause of 
the colonists too highly to abandon it for an oppressive 
monarchy. 

From the time John Hancock entered upon his politi- 
cal career he became so thoroughly identified with the 
struggle for liberty in Massachusetts, that his biography 
and that history, are inseparable. 

Within a little more than a generation after the com- 



JOHN HANCOCK. 13 

mencement of the "plantations" in America, the royal 
government of London began to make formal inquiries 
into the population, industries and manufactories, which 
were renewed until the period of the Revolution. 

There was evidently a twofold object in these inquir- 
ies — a jealousy lest the colonies should grow too fast, 
and a desire to monopolize for the benefit of Great Brit- 
ain, their trade. Manufacturing in the colonies was 
greatly discouraged in England, it being the desire of 
the mother country to make the colonies consumers of 
British products, and producers of raw material. 

It is not necessary to a clear understanding of the po- 
sition of Hancock and his co-laborers to particularize on 
the various acts of monopoly by Parliament. They uni- 
formly bore heavily on the commercial and manufactur- 
ing interests of the colonies, and were designed to keep 
them in a firmer dependence upon England — to render 
them beneficial only to the mother government, and to 
employ and increase English shipping, and build up a 
place for the disposal of English manufacturers. 

The peace of 1763 formed a pretext for a still more 
grinding policy, that of taxing the colonies, with the 
avowed purpose of a revenue into the royal exchequer, 
on the seemingly plausible but unwarrantable grounds, 
that Great Britain had contracted a debt in their defence. 

Prior to this when England wanted money from the 
colonies, the Parliament had been content to ask for it 
by requisition upon the Colonial Legislature, and they 
had supplied it with a willing hand; but it was thought 
that a shorter method might be resorted to, and it was 



14 JOHN HANCOCK. 

decided to collect what they wanted, by direct taxation. 

Rather than unjust duties should be imposed upon 
goods, the owners resorted to concealing such as were 
dutiable. In order to search for such articles Writs of 
Assistance, or orders were issued by the Superior Court 
of the province, requiring sheriffs and other civil officers 
to assist the revenue collector to whom it was granted, 
in breaking open and searching stores and even private 
dwellings, if suspected of containing prohibited goods. 

Being denied representation in the law making bodies, 
the colonists were justified in resenting such unjust 
measures, which were directly in conflict with the old 
established rule that "a man's house is his castle." 

The first application for a writ of this kind was made 
by a deputy collector at Salem, in November, 1760. 
Doubts being expressed by the court as to the legality of 
the writ or power of the court to grant it, the applica- 
tion was deferred to the next term, when the question 
was to be argued. At this trial Mr. James Otis made 
his immortal speech, in which according to John Adams 
he "was a flame of fire." 

In all these struggles against the clutching fingers of 
tyranny young Hancock took a lively interest. Having 
large mercantile interests, and being a thorough busi- 
ness man, it was only natural that his mind should be 
early drawn to these discussions. 

He was present and heard the famous appeals of Otis 
and Thatcher before the Superior Court, and his soul 
was stirred to its very depths. In the language of John 
Adams, 



JOHN HANCOCK. 15 

"Every man of that immensely crowded audience, 
went away, ready to take up arms against Writs of As- 
sistance. Then and there was the first scene of the first 
act of oppositio7i to the arbitrary clamis of Great Brit- 
ain.'''' 

None quitted that scene of excitement more deter- 
mined to resist to death the encroaching tyranny of the 
mother country than John Hancock. 

The Court postponed a decision until the following 
term; and in the meantime wrote to Great Britain for 
information on the subject. Writs were afterward grant- 
ed in Massachusetts, but they were extremely unpopu- 
lar, and the law was never rigidly enforced. 

The next measure of British oppression and stupidity 
was the infamous Stamp Act passed by Parliament 
March 22, 1765. So infamous was the act that while 
pending in parliament, Mr. Pitt, General Conway, Al- 
derman Beckford, Colonel Barre, Mr. Jackson and Sir 
William Merrideth opposed it, some on the grounds of 
expediency, others of its injustice. 

This act so noted in the annals of American history; 
both as an act of flagrant injustice on the part of the 
Revolution, consisted of fifty-five specific duties, laid on 
as many different species of instruments in which paper 
was used; such as notes, bonds, mortgages, deeds, uni- 
versity degrees, licenses, advertisements in newspapers, 
and even almanacs; varying from one half penny to six 
pou?ids. 

Great Britain seemed to misjudge the temper of her 
colonists and to forget they were the descendants of those 



|6 JOHN HANCOCK. 

who left civilization and entered a wilderness, that they 
might enjoy civil and religious liberties. 

It is quite true that the masses deemed it no act of 
outlawry to break a law in which they could have no 
part in making. While loyal to tbe laws of the Coloni- 
al legislature which they had by representatives framed, 
they felt no compunctions of conscience in infringing on 
the tyrannical enactments forced upon them by a mon- 
archy three thousand miles away. 

George III was unpopular from the first with his col- 
onies. It had been said that his weak ambition was to 
erect a magnificent palace that should surpass that of 
any other prince in the world, and to raise the funds, he 
determined on taxing the American Colonies. 

Their resistance increased his stubborn determination, 
and had he not been held in check by such wise and 
patriotic statesmen as Pitt, Barre, Conway, and others, 
there is no knowing to what extent his foolish extrava- 
gance would have gone. 

The Stamp Act was ordered to go into effect in No^ 
vember 1765, and the people in all the colonies boldly 
and anxiously expressed detestation of the imholy meas- 
ure. 

One day in the month of August, the effigy of Andrew 
Olliver, the proposed stamp distributor in Massachusetts 
was found hanging to a tree, afterwards well known as 
the Liberty Tree in one of the main streets of Boston. 
At night it was cut down, and carried on a bier amidst 
the acclamations of an immense collection of people, 
through the court house, down King Street, to a small 



JOHN HANCOCK. 17 

brick building supposed to have been erected for the re- 
ception of the detested stamps. The building was soon 
leveled with the ground, and the mob now swelled to 
several hundred were so inflamed that they next assailed 
the home of Mr. Olliver, breaking the windows and de- 
stroying a part of the furniture. 

The house of Benjamin Hollowell, Junior, controller 
of the treasury was next entered. Unfortunately the 
mob found liquors in the cellar, with which they kindled 
their rage to such an extent it became ungovernable. 
They next attacked the house of Lieutenant Governor 
Hutchinson, who after vainly attempting resistance was 
compelled to fly for life. His was one of the best houses 
in the province, but by four o'clock in the morning it 
was in complete ruins, nothing remaining but the bare 
walls and floors. The plate, family pictures, most of 
the furniture, the wearing apparel, about nine hundred 
pounds sterling, the manuscripts and books which Mr. 
Hutchinson had been thirty years in collecting, were 
either carried off or destroyed. The whole damage was 
estimated at two thousand five hundred pounds. 

The participants in such scenes, were a motley crowd, 
white and black, who may be found at all times, hungry 
for excitement. They were not all law breakers at 
heart, but driven to excesses by injustice and drink, 
sought vengeance in the only way feasible to their excit- 
ed imaginations. For these acts better and wiser men 
were held responsible. 

It was in the midst of such trying scenes that Hancock 
was elected a member to the Provincial Legislature. 



i8 JOHN HANCOCK. 

The people of Boston could not have made a wiser se- 
lection; not so much for his wealth and influence as for 
his peculiar abilities to direct thought and legislation, 
and for his intense love of liberty. In commenting on his 
election Samuel Adams said: 

"Boston has done a wise thing to-day — she's made that 
young man's fortune her own," and this was literally 
true for he devoted it all to the public use. 

On November ist, the day on which the Stamp Act 
was to go into effect, all the bells at early dawn began 
to toll the knell of departing liberties; many shops and 
stores were closed, and effigies of the friends and authors 
of that act were carried about the streets, and afterwards 
torn to pieces by the enraged populace. 

Though we may blame the inflamed populace for these 
acts of lawlessness, yet we must not lose sight of the fact 
that only by such covert acts could they express their 
disapprobation of a law which they had had no part in 
making, and no power to repeal. 

It became a question of armed resistance which forced 
itself on the colonists, and among the first to grasp the 
situation, and go to the full extreme against the tyran- 
nical measures of the government, was Hancock. 

The war of the Revolution might have been brought 
on ten years sooner, had not a change in the British 
ministry brought more conservative men into power, 
who decided it was wiser to repeal the iniquitous stamp 
act, than to leave it a farce on the statute books, or up- 
hold it by force of arms. 

The repeal act reached Boston about noon Friday, 



JOHN HANCOCK. ig 

May 13, 1776, brought by John Hancock's vessel, the 
brig, '■''Harrison.'''' 

Great was the general joy. Church bells immediately 
pealed forth the glad tidings, ships hoisted their colors 
to the top of their masts; the "Sons of Liberty" gath- 
ered under their favorite tree, where they passed the 
night with bonfires, toasts and patriotic songs, inter- 
spersed with the discharge of guns. 

On the common the enthusiastic citizens erected a 
magnificent pyramid, illuminated by two hundred and 
eighty lamps, the four upper stories of which were orna- 
mented with figures of the King and Queen, and four- 
teen of the patriots who had distinguished themselves 
for their love of liberty. On the four sides of the lower 
apartment were appropriate poetic inscriptions. 

No man of prominence in Boston was more specially 
concerned in the Stamp Act law than John Hancock. 
His open denunciations of the law in public and private 
caused him to be loved at home and feared abroad. 

Some of his enemies have attempted to prove that 
Hancock was instrumental in stirring up the populace 
to resist with mob violence, but have never been able to 
convict him of the offense. In fact, he always coun- 
seled a legal rather than an illegal resistance, until rev- 
olutionary methods became the last resort. 

He made himself as conspicuous in the celebration 
of this joyous occasion as he had been active in oppos- 
ing the Stamp Act. 

The King and Parliament had yielded to the wishes 
of the suffering people and repealed the law, and he de- 



20 JUHN HANCOCK. 

clared that the people were closer bound to their mon- 
arch than ever. 

He gave a grand entertainment to the genteel part of 
the town, and treated the populace to a pipe of madeira 
wine, which had been placed on a platform erected in 
front of his elegantly illuminated house. The platform 
was constructed for a twofold purpose— to hold the pipe 
of wine, and a grand display of fireworks. The whole 
city caught the spirit of illumination and celebration 
from Hancock, and all the opponents of the vStamp Act 
kept open house, while there was general rejoicing in 
Boston. 

The grand display concluded at eleven o'clock, when 
at a given signal, a horizontal fire-wheel on the top of 
the pyramid was set in motion, ending in the discharge 
of sixteen dozen serpents in the air. 

When the grand panorama of light and splendor had 
gone out, darkness and quiet once more pervaded Bos- 
ton, and the crowds dispersed, singly, or in groups until 
the streets were deserted and silence prevailed. 

Hancock, the manager of the celebration, had conduct- 
ed it with such consumate skill as to give offense to no 
one, everything had been done in perfect order, and the 
utmost good feeling prevailed. 

By a previous in\itation of the governor, his majesty's 
council met at the Province House in the afternoon, 
where many loyal toasts were drunk, and then in the 
evening they went to the common to witness the display 
of fire-works. 

The Crown and the Provincial officers exchanged 




Hancock's House, Boston. 
As it appears at the present time. 



22 JOHN HANCOCK. 

congratulations; past differences were forgotten, and 
that i6tli day of May was a red letter day in the memo- 
ry of the people of Boston. 

Before the glad sounds of rejoicing at the repeal of the 
Stamp Act had mellowed into the harmony of confident 
hope, the ministry of England by its unwise and unjust 
acts, again awakened loud murmurs of discontent 
throughout the American Colonies. 

The germ of new oppression, was the Declaratory Act, 
which appeared so harmless at first but began to expand 
in the genial soil of ministerial culture. A resolution 
passed the House of Commons, demanding of the colo- 
nies restitution to the crown officers who had suffered 
loss by the Stamp Act riots. This being just, the colon- 
ies complied; IMassachusetts however, in passing the In- 
demnification Bill, inserted a provision that a free par- 
don should be extended to all concerned. 

Much bad feeling was engendered by the insolent 
manner in which the settlement of the claims was de- 
manded. Governor Bernard of Massachusetts was so per- 
emptory and insulting, that the people of Boston flatly 
refused to pay, until the governor altered his tone, when 
they complied. 

With such spirits as Hancock, Adams and Otis stirring 
the people with eloquence and example, they could not 
become otherwise than patriotic, and never were people 
more jealous of their liberties than the inhabitants of 
Massachusetts. 

Hancock was himself the most vigilant and enthusias- 
tic of all. He infused his spirit and personality in the 



JOHN HANCOCK. 23 

cause of freedom until the people of Massachusetts soon 
came to look upon him as their leader in the cause of lib- 
erty. 

He was so pronounced and so bold in his utterances 
both in public and private that he astounded both Colo- 
nists and royalists. 

The latter were willing to extend to him the olive 
branch of peace, and would have made him powerful and 
popular in the world if he would have turned against his 
neighbors. But Hancock was too loyal to the princi- 
ple of liberty to yield to any promise or advancement. 
He valued the esteem of the poorest patriot in Boston 
more highly than that of the governor of the Colony or 
King on the throne. 

He held frequent conferences with the Adamses, who 
were his intimate friends, on the gravity of the situation 
and dangers which menaced the country. 

For a man of such unbounded wealth, upon which the 
enemy might prey at any moment, Hancock seems to 
have lacked discretion. He was continually menaced with 
imprisonment and confiscation. But he was still a young 
man and, perhaps had not arrived at the ripe age of dis- 
cretion when silence is thought to be golden. The mod- 
ern term of "jingoism" could appropriately be applied 
to him. 

In numerous interviews with the Adamses, Otis and 
others, the clause of the Annual Mutiny Act was dis- 
cussed. This, Hancock properly viewed as taxation in 
disguise, and a measure not calculated to strengthen roy- 
al power in America, but to shift a heavy burden from 



24 Joll.N HANCOCK. 

the shoulders of the home goveniiiient to those of the 
colonies. The clause provided that the British troops 
that might be sent to America, should be furnished 
quarters, beer, salt and \-inegar at the expense of the 
people. 

Though the tax was small and easily borne, Hancock 
argued that it involved the principles, substantially, 
that were avowed in the Stamp Act; and was more odi- 
ous because the intent was to make the people support 
bayonets sent to aliridge llieir liberties. Not only did 
Hancock and Samuel Adams urge the opposition to the 
act at home, but abroad. 

Hancock, as well as Adams, was an excellent letter 
writer, and enjoyed a wide range of acquaintance among 
the more influential men in the colonies. 

Chiefly through the influence of these two men, New 
York and Massachusetts refused to comply with the pro- 
visions in the clause in the Annual Mutiny Act, and op- 
position, as zealous as that against the Stamp Act, was 
aroused. 

The Mutiny Act granted power to every officer, upon 
obtaining a warrant from a justice, to break into c-ny 
house, by day or night, in search of deserters. 

Like Writs of Assistance, these powers might be, and 
indeed were used by unprincipled men for other than 
ostensible purposes; and the guaranty of the British 
constitution that ever\' man's house was his castle, and 
inviolate, was subverted. 

The Rockingham cabinet proved too liberal for the 
friends of the king, and on August 2, 1766, it was dis- 



JOHN HANCOCK. 25 

solved. The new cabinet formed by his majesty's com- 
mands under the control of Mr. Pitt, who had just been 
created Earl of Chatham, caused a feeling of uncertainty 
among the colonists. The Earl of Chatham, the hope 
of the American people, proved to be not strong enough 
to save them. 

The Duke of Grafton was placed at the head of the 
treasury, and Charles Townshend made chancellor of 
the exchequer. In May, 1767, the latter revived the 
scheme of taxing America, proposing to impose duties 
on glass, paper and tea, imported into the colonies. 

The Earl of Chatham, at that time being confined to 
his bed by sickness, the remaining friends of the colon- 
ies in parliament were not strong enough to prevent 
the passage of the bill through both houses, and it be- 
came a law. 

The news of this measure, on reaching America, pro- 
duced the greatest possible excitement. Counter meas- 
ures were immediately proposed. Resort was had, as at 
a former day, to non-importation, the effect of which 
had been so severely felt by the traders in England un- 
der the Stamp Act. 

As on the other occasion Hancock and Adams headed 
the opposition in Boston, boldly denouncing the act as 
tyrannical. 

The fury with which Hancock had assailed the Stamp 
Act was mild in comparison to his boldness in denounc- 
ing the last measure. When we consider that he could 
have greatly added to his own wealth and power by es- 
pousing the cause of the crown, we can not doubt his 




w 



JOHN HANCOCK. 27 

patriotism. He was present at the town meeting in October 
at which it was voted that measnres shonld immediately be 
taken to promote the establishment of domestic mann- 
factories, by encouraging the consumption of all articles 
of American manufacture. They furthermore agreed to 
purchase no articles of foreign growth or manufacture, 
but such as were absolutely indispensable. 

New York and Philadelphia soon followed the exam- 
ple of Boston; and in a short time the merchants them- 
selves entered into associations to import nothing from 
Great Britain, save such articles as were absolutely nec- 
essary. 

Through all this commercial war, one may see the 
skillful management of Hancock, even though he was 
campaigning against his own financial interests. Being 
an importer, he knew that the most effective blow to 
strike at the mother country and the blow that would be 
most keenly felt, was at her commerce. 

On the other hand his enemies may say that it was 
by the evasion of such laws that he made his profits. 
The evasion of the unjust law was popular at that time 
and in full accord with the ethics of most of the op- 
pressed colonists. 

It was the resistance of such tyrannical measures, at 
that time thought patriotic, that has caused Hancock to 
be stigmatized by some weak-writers as a smuggler. 
Often there are nice distinctions between patriots and 
outlaws, just as there are between fanaticism and sagacity. 

If the patriots of the Revolution had failed in securing 
their own liberties, they would have been outlaws. 



28 JOHN HANCOCK. 

There can be no revolution or rebellion ag-ainst law or 
government however tyrannical, withont violation of law. 
On the other hand there has never been a rebellion 
against a perfect government. People who neither di- 
rectly nor indirectly have any part in making laws that 
govern them, have more excuse for avoiding odious and 
offensive enactments, than those who possess the elective 
franchise. 

If Hancock was an outlaw, his patriotism made him 
one, and no one can lay the chargeof smuggling for gain 
at his door. He could easily have doubled his princely 
fortune by adhering to the oppressive course of the king; 
but his great generous heart was with his struggling 
countrymen and he resolved to cast his lot with them. 

If the people are morally and legally makers of their 
own laws, Hancock and Adams never infringed on the 
code. The rules of foreign potentates across the ocean, 
they had come to feel were laws which, niorallv, they 
had no right to respect. 

The year 1767 passed amid continual strife and agi- 
tation in the Colonies, especially in Boston, which was 
regarded b}- the British as the hot bed of sedition. 

At the beginning of 1768, the American people edu- 
cated by a long series of moral and political contests 
with the government of Great Britain, and assured by 
recent experience and observation of their own sound 
and potent physical and moral strength and the justice 
of their cause, stood in an attitude of firm resolve not to 
submit to the new schemes of the ministry for their en- 
slavement. 



JOHN HANCOCK. 29 

Though determined to have home rule inviolate in 
their political affairs, yet they were willing to bear with 
patience the pressure upon their industrial enterprise of 
old acts of Parliament still unrepealed. 

As yet Hancock was eminently loyal and proud of the 
honor of being a British subject in its broadest sense of 
nationality, as were his contemporary patriots. Never- 
theless to the eye of the superficial observer, the Ameri- 
cans were at that time in a state of open revolt. Rep- 
resentative assemblies, representing the people, were de- 
fying the power of Great Britain which threatened to 
impose unjust and unconstitutional laws upon them with 
bullet and bayonet. The non-importation agreements, 
working disastrously against British commerce, were 
again in full force; and the spirit of resistance was ripe 
among the masses. 

Hancock though a determined leader was more con- 
ser\ative than the masses. We have doubts however if 
the term leader is ever justly applied in any movement. 
In all great reforms and revolutions it is the masses who 
take the initiatory, and those who accompany and direct 
their cause are called leaders. The leaders are conser- 
vative men who "wait on judgment," for having repu- 
tations, and fortunes at stake, they naturally are more 
careful than the reckless masses with neither. 

Hancock deprecating the spasmodic violence in oppo- 
sition to the Stamp Act, counselled moderation, and con- 
demned any but legal, just, and dignified measures. He 
saw that a crisis was at hand, when statesmanship of the 
highest order would be needed in the popular represen- 



30 JOHN HANCOCK. 

tative assemblies, and wise and jndicious men were 
wanted as popular leaders of the people. 

Without possessing the fiery eloquence of an Otis or 
Patrick Henry, or the deep statesman-like oratory of an 
Adams, Hancock was a fluent and scholarly speaker, 
with a manner and address that was pleasing and popu- 
lar. Those who heard the smooth sentences rolling from 
his tongue were spell-bound, convicted and convinced 
by his earnest, impressive manner. But it w^as in delib- 
erative assemblies that his power was most felt. In all 
the deliberations of the patriot leaders during that stormy 
period, the counsel of Hancock had great weight. He 
was bold but cautious, courteous but firm as a mountain, 
when an invasion of the rights of the poorest of the com- 
mon people were at stake. 

We can safely say that he went farther in the begin- 
ning than many other patriots dared venture. His ex- 
pressions sometimes partook of the nature of defiance, 
and open rebellion, when others trembled at the thought. 

One day a placard appeared on the Boston common, 
containing a call on the "Sons of Liberty," to "rise and 
fight for their rights," saying that legions would join 
them. 

The above placard was denounced by James Otis as a 
rash, undignified and unlawful measure. John Dickinson 
deprecated anything like harsh measures with the moth- 
er country, and declared they must gain their liberties 
by constitutional methods. 

But the affairs of men sometimes reach a point where 
law and constitution fail, and then revolutionary means 



JOHN HANCOCK. 31 

must be resorted to. When corrupt, unprincipled and 
tyrannical men seize the ship of state, and with it the 
courts, it is mockery to speak of constitutional methods. 

Hancock knew this, and when appealed to answered 
evasively: 

'■^Vox populi vox dei! When the populace revolts we 
must follow. While we shall 
not lead the way to revolu- 
tion, I apprehend that we 
are in danger of being driv- 
en to it. " 

At this time he was no 
more of a revolutionist than 
Otis and Dickinson, but his 
keen perceptive faculties no 
doubt enabled him to dip 
further into the future, and 
reason on what the outcome 
would be, than contemporan- 
eous statesmen. At the opening of the assembly of Mas- 
sachusetts at the beginning of 1768, the several obnoxious 
acts recently passed by Parliament were read and referred 
to a committee on the state of the province. That com- 
mittee submitted a letter addressed to the agent of the 
colony in England, but intended for the ministry. 

It set forth the rights of the Americans; their equality 
with British subjects as free citizens, and their right to 
local self-government. 

It set forth loyalty and disclaimed a desire for inde- 
pendence; opposing the late acts merely on the grounds 




John Dickinson. 



32 JOHN HANCOCK. 

of constitutionality; remonstrated against the maintain- 
ing of a standing army in America as expensive, nse- 
less, altogether inadequate to compel obedience, and 
dangerous to liberty. 

It objected to the establishment in America of com- 
missioners of customs, and many other measures which 
the members thought infringements on their liberties. 

Hancock was no doubt consulted by Samuel Adams 
when he wrote his famous Circular Letter to the several 
colonial assemblies, informing them of the letter to the 
agent and the petition to the king, and inviting them to 
join the people of Massachusetts in "maintaining the 
liberties of America." 

Hancock may have even suggested the famous epistle, 
for it is quite evident that he was among the very first, 
if not the first, to suggest a Continental Congress, the 
object of which was to resent if not resist the encroach- 
ments of Great Britain on the colonies. 

This famous Circular Letter was laid before Governor 
Bernard, and excited his fears and indignation. He 
sent a copy with a personal letter expressing his views 
to the Earl of Hillsborough. That person received it 
about the middle of April, and sent instructions to the 
Governor to call upon the General Assembly of Massa- 
chusetts to rescind their resolutions, the substance of 
which was embodied in their circular, and in the event 
of refusal to dissolve them. 

Meanwhile the most cheering responses had come to 
the Massachusetts Assembly from the colonies. About 
this time Hancock had been informed that General Gage 



JOHN HANCOCK. 33 

at New York had been ordered to hold a regiment of 
soldiers in readiness to send to Boston, to aid the crown 
officers in executing the laws. The admiralty was also 
directed to send a frigate and four smaller vessels of war 
to Boston harbor for the same purpose, with directions 
for repairing and occupying Castle William. 

The tendency of the colonists to evade the pernicious 
revenue laws forced upon them, made this step seem im- 
portant to the stubborn king. Mr. Lossing says the 
Americans regarded this measure as a virtual declaration 
of war, nevertheless wiser heads resolved to keep the 
sword of resistance in the scabbard as long as possible. 

As John Hancock was much interested in the com- 
merce of Boston, being the owner of several vessels, the 
extreme measures taken against that town, were intend- 
ed as a punishment of him. 

The commissioners of customs and commander of the 
sloop-of-war which, at their request, had come to Boston 
from Halifax, on their arrival assumed the utmost inso- 
lence of manner and speech toward the people. New 
England men were pressed into the British naval ser- 
vice, and treated worse than slaves. 

There lived in Boston at this time a man named Mal- 
colm, who had formerly been a sailor in Hancock's em- 
ploy. Historians call him "a bold smuggler," and per- 
haps the charge was true, though there was no evidence 
that he engaged in smuggling while in Hancock's em- 
ploy. 

Hancock was an easy task master, and never was em- 
ployer more liberal with employees. He paid good 




p^ 



P-, 



PL, 22 



C >, 

til ^ 






X> W 



m 



JOHN HANCOCK. 35 

wages, rewarded merit, and won their love and confi- 
dence, 

Malcolm was a brawling fellow, brave as a lion, and 
an ardent hater of despotism. He was continually en- 
gaged in quarrels and often in fights with the custom- 
house officers and soldiers. He had a numerous follow- 
ing among the "long-shoremen," many of whom were as 
eager as himself for a collision with the soldiers and offi- 
cers of the crown, whom they had come to regard as 
their natural enemies. 

In June, 1768, John Hancock's sloop, '''■Liberty^'''' en- 
tered Boston harbor with a cargo of Madeira wine. The 
custom-house officers had grown to' both hate and fear 
the owner, and were longing for an opportunity to injure 
him for his presumed insolence. 

Just at sunset the "tide-waiter" under the commis- 
sioners went on board, and entering the cabin seated 
himself at the table to drink punch with the master, 
while the sailors landed the dutiable goods. This was 
the lax custom faithfully observed by the revenue offi- 
cers. 

Hancock had resolved to resist to the iniquitous revenue 
laws in every possible way. The whole country was re- 
sisting the oppression of their common enemy, and the 
reader must keep in mind the fact that his evading the 
law was not for personal gain. 

"Those who purchased his goods duty free 
Received the profit, and not he." 

About nine o'clock in the evening, the captain of the 
'"''Liberty^'' and others, among whom was Malcolm, en- 



36 JOHN HANCOCK. 

tered the cabin, seized the "tide-waiter," confined him, 
and proceeded to land the wine without entering it at 
the custom-house, or observing any other formula pro- 
scribed by the crown officers. The master of the '•'"Lib- 
erty exerted himself so greatly in landing the cargo 
that he died from the effects, before morning. 

Just as the last cask was landed, the sloop was seized 
by the officers of customs for violation of the revenue 
laws. The news of the seizure of the vessel spread like 
w41d-fire through the town. 

A crowd of citizens quickly gathered at the wharf, 
and as the proceedings went on, the lower order consist- 
ing of loafers, boys and negroes, became a mob under 
the leadership of Malcolm, The collector (Harrison) 
and controller (Hallowell) hurried to the dock to enforce 
the law. INIr. Harrison recommended that the sloop re- 
main at Hancock's wharf with the Inroad arrow mark, to 
denote legal seizure; but Hallowell, who was both pas- 
sionate and profane, swore she should not, and ordered 
her to be taken and moored under the guns of the Brit- 
ish war- vessel '"'•Romney.'''' 

He went aboard the ''^ Liberty ^'^'' and after a brief con- 
versation with the tide-waiter came to the wharf and 
sent for the boats of the ''^Romnef to come and take 
the sloop away. An exciting scene followed, which 
Mr. Bancroft gives in the following graphic style: 

"You had better let the vessel be at the wharf," said 
Malcolm. 

"I shall not," said Hallowell, and gave directions to 
cut the fasts. 



JOHN HANCOCK. yj 

"Stop at least till the owner comes," said the people 
who crowded round. 

"No," cried Hallowell, "cast her off." 

"I'll split out the brains of any man who offers to re- 
ceive a fast or stop a vessel," said the master of the 
^'Romneyr ^iifl he shouted to the marines to fire. 

"What rascal is that who dares to tell the marines to 
fire?" cried a Bostoner; and turning to Harrison, the 
collector, a well meaning man, who disapproved the vio- 
lent manner of the seizure, he added: "The owner is 
sent for; 5'ou had better let her lie at the wharf until he 
comes down." 

"No, she shall go," insisted the controller; "show me 
the man who dares oppose it!" 

"Kill the scoundrel," cried the master. 

"We will throw the people of the '■Romney'' over- 
board," said Malcolm, stung with anger, 

''She shall go," repeated the master, with a strong 
expletive, and he once more called on the marines, ' 'why 
don't you fire?" and bade them fire= 

So they cut her moorings, and with ropes on the 
barges, the sloop was towed away to the '^Ronineyy 

All the while the owner of the sloop seized by the 
marines and revenue officers, was at home unconscious 
of the great excitement caused by the seizure of his ship. 
When the messenger came to him with the information, 
he hastened to the wharf, but his vessel was already 
seized and being drawn up along side the "7?^;;/;/<?y." 

The hot indignation of the people was aroused by the 
high handed act of Hallowell. A mob of whites and 



38 JOHN HANCOCK. 

negroes, followed the cnstom-liouse officers, pelted them 
with stones and other missiles, and broke the windows 
of their offices. A pleasure boat belonging to the col- 
lector was seized by some of the enraged mob, and after 
being dragged through the town was burned on the 
common. 

The fires of rage having burned out, the exhausted 
mob dispersed and quietly returned to their homes. 
Though unhurt the commissioners were greatly alarmed. 
They applied to the Governor for protection, but he, as 
much frightened as they, plead that he was powerless to 
save them. They finally fied to the ^'•Romney^'''' and 
thence to Castle William, nearly three miles south-east 
of the city, where a company of British artillery was 
stationed. 

Hancock deprecated the conduct of the mob, though 
he was the chief sufferer from the officers. Aided by 
Warren, Adams and Otis, he soon had the people under 
control so the collectors would really have been in no 
danger had they remained in their offices. 

The above incident formed one of the pretexts on the 
part of the royal Governor for sending troops to Boston, 
an act that culminated in Lexington, Concord, Bunker 
Hill, the Revolution and Independence of the United 
States. 

John Hancock, one of the most watchful and vigilant 
of all the liberty loving colonists, was at one moment 
the intended object of royal favor, and next of its ven- 
geance. He was cool, unpurturbed, and continued on 
in the even tenor of his way, always looking to the lib- 



JOHN HANCOCK. 39 

erties and interests of his countrymen more than to his 
own welfare. 

Orders had been given General Gage, then at New 
York, to be in readiness to furnish troops whenever 
Bernard should make a requisition for them. When 
that officer heard of the disturbance in the New England 
capital, he sent word to the Governor that the troops 
were in readiness to march at a moment's notice. 

Bernard was really anxious to send for them, for he 
was a revengeful man, but could not make the requisi- 
tion without consent of his council, and that body per- 
versely declared that the civil power did not need the 
support of soldiers, nor was it for his majesty's service 
or peace of the province that they should be required. 

When the desires and acts of Bernard became known, 
it was with difficulty the indignation of the citizens of 
Boston could be restrained. Satisfied that sooner or 
later troops would be sent under some pretext, they re- 
solved to put the engine of non-importation, which had 
worked so powerfully before, into vigorous operation. 

During the month of August, 1768, nearly all the 
merchants of Boston subscribed to such a league, to go 
into operation on the first of January following, hoping, 
through the influence of the British merchants, to re- 
strain the hand of the home government raised to strike 
them. The Sons of Liberty were everywhere active, 
watching every movement of the crown officers. 

One day a British army officer was discovered on the 
streets of Boston, evidently making arrangements for 
barracks for the expected troops. The alarm was at 



40 JOHN HANCOCK. 

once given, and the city roused. A town meeting was 
called at the famous Faneuil Hall which appointed a 
committee, consisting of Hancock, Otis, John and Sam- 
uel Adams, to wait on the Governor and ascertain if the 
visit of the officer was for such a purpose, and to request 
him to call a special session of the legislature. 

Bernard informed them that troops were about to be 
quartered in Boston, but declined to call the assembly 
until he should hear from home. The first part of the 
interview was stormy. Added to the defiant fi^rmness of 
Hancock, was the fiery eloquence of Otis and the deep 
logic and statesm-anship of Samuel xAdam.s, Thev were 
calm, but determined. Every word uttered was carefully 
weighed, and the Governor had good cause for alarm. 

Four more powerful and popular men could not have 
been found in Boston. All Boston, which amounted to 
more than sixteen thousand souls, was behind them. 
The Governor who had set out to be firm gradually grew 
more pacific, and the interview which began storm)-, 
had a mild termination. 

Of all the committee the Governor knew Hancock 
was most to be feared. He possessed wealth, and money 
in those days was a power as it is at present. Besides 
he was popular among all classes. His great liberality, 
his love of justice, and above all his sympathy with the 
common people from the day laborer to the merchant, 
farmer and tradesman, made him their idol. He deter- 
mined once more to placate him. Not being above of- 
fering bribes he attempted in a subtle form to beguile 
the staid true patriot who risked so much for the people 



JOHN HANCOCK. 41 

with a bribe, in the form of a commission as a member 
of his council. 

If the Governor supposed that John Hancock was to 
be bought off with official honors, he was very much 
mistaken. The political purity of Hancock cannot be 
doubted even if his maligners should denounce him as a 
smuggler. 

As any other just man would have been, he was right- 
eously indignant at the attempt, and on receiving the 
commission tore it to pieces. Baffled in his efforts to 
secure Hancock the Governor determined to attempt the 
placation of other leaders. He offered the lucrative of- 
fice of advocate general in the court of admiralty to John 
Adams, who instantly rejected it. He cautiously ap- 
proached the sturdy Puritan, Samuel Adams, with hon- 
eyed words and an offer of place, but received such a 
rebuke that he never dared mention the subject to him 
again. 

When it became evident that the Governor would not 
call the Assembly, a town meeting that was ordered, rec- 
ommended that a convention of delegates from all the 
towns in the province be held in Boston, under the 
plausible pretext that the prevailing apprehensions of 
war with France required a general consultation; though 
apprehension of war with the mother country was the 
real cause for the movement. 

The convention assembled September 22, 1768, with 
more than one hundred delegates, representing every 
town and district in the province, save one. Thomas 
Gushing, speaker of the Assembly, presided. They pe- 



42 JOHN HANCOCK. 

titioned the Governor to summon a general court; but 
he answered by denouncing the convention as a treason- 
■ able body. They disclaimed all pretentions to political 
authority, and professed the utmost loyalty to the king, 
and said they had met in that "dark and distressing time 
to consult and advise as to the best manner in preserv- 
ing peace and good order." 

The Governor had made a requisition on Gage for 
troops, who ordered them from Halifax to Boston. In 
daily expectation of their arrival he ordered the conven- 
tion to disperse without delay; but those stern patriots 
unmoved by orders or threats, stood firm to their pur- 
pose and remained in session six days, but were careful 
to take no immoderate action. 

They adopted a petition to the king, and an address 
to the people in which they set forth the alarming state 
of the country, advising abstainence from violence, and 
submission to legal authority. 

The convention had just adjourned when the white 
sails of eight vessels of war appeared at the entrance to 
Boston Harbor, bearing the two regiments of British 
soldiers General Gage had ordered from Halifax, com- 
manded by colonels Dalrymple and Carr. 

In his zeal to carry out the wishes of the royal Gov- 
ernor, Gage sent his engineer, Montressor, to assist the 
troops if necessary. That officer bore an order in ac- 
cordance with the wishes of Governor Bernard, to land 
troops in the settled parts of Boston. Accordingly on 
Saturday morning, October i, 1768, the ships moved up 
to the city, anchored with springs on their cables; and 



JOHN HANCOCK. 43 

against the solemn protests of the people, the soldiers 
were landed at the Long Wharf, under cover of the guns 
of the war vessels. 

After vainly trying to quarter the troops on the town, 




Gray House, Pine Street, Boston. Built 1750. Used as a Hospital 
by the British. 

the commanding officer was forced to pitch tents on the 
commons for them. 

Thus backed up by the military the custom-house of- 
ficers returned to Boston to resume their authority. One 
of their first acts was an attempt at revenge in the name 
of retributive justice. From the seizure of Hancock's 
vessel and the riots which resulted from it, the commis- 
sioners of customs had not dared venture from Castle 



44 JOHN HANCOCK. 

William under whose protecting guns they had sought 
shelter. But the arrival of soldiers and the sight of 
their snowy tents on Boston Common made them bold; 
they returned, more haught}- and insolent than before. 

It was only natural that the full fury of their ven- 
geance should fall on Hancock. He and the "bold 
smuggler" Malcolm were arrested on false charges, 
claiming penalties for violations of acts of Parliament, 
which in Hancock's case amounted to almost half a mil- 
lion dollars. Hancock employed John Adams as his 
counsel, and that learned advocate said: 

"A painful drudgery I had of his case and not a 
charge was established." 

Shortly after the above incidents, the Earl of Chath- 
am, that Englishman of honor and sterling worth, who 
was ever the friend of America, offended at the king's 
insolence, resigned, and Lord North was installed as 
leader of the British ministry. North w-as only the 
echo of the monarch, who swayed this minister with 
perfect controL 

The king had made it an intlexible rule never to re- 
dress a grievance unless such redress was prayed for in a 
spirit of obedience and humility. He also determined to 
assert the riglit of Parliament to tax the colonies, and 
insisted that one tax must always be laid to keep up 
that right; so the king and his pliant minister clung to 
the duty on tea, 

Hancock foresaw the inevitable drift of things. He was 
thoroughly conversant with the temper of the American 
people, not only in Massachusetts but in all the colonies. 



JOHN HANXOCK. 45 

When others still scouted at the idea of war he gravely 
shook his head and declared it must come. He knew 
that the citizens of Boston could not much longer en- 
dure the growing insolence of the king's soldiers. 

Instead of being thoroughly disciplined obedient 
troops, the soldiery seemed a horde of ruffians who emu- 
lated with each other in the perpetration of outrage and 
insult on the citizens. That the officers were not only 
cognizant of their conduct but encouraged it, there can 
be no question. 

Prom, the landing of the soldiers to March 5, 1770, 
there seemed to be an inevitable drift to one condition, 
and an approach of the terrible climax. 

What is known as the Boston Massacre, began at the 
shop of a rope-maker, where a British soldier in a box- 
ing match with some of the workmen got worsted, and 
croing- to the barracks returned with a sufficient number 
of his dissolute comrades to chase all the rope-makers 
through the streets. 

The citizens naturally sympathized with the rope- 
makers, and that afternoon began to gather in l.:irge 
numbers to avenge the wrongs of the workmen. But 
the civil and military authorities took steps to at least 
postpone a collision. The trouble with the rope-makers 
occurred on Friday, March 2, and there was no more 
outbreak until the evening of IMonday, March 5th. 

The ground was covered with a thin coating of snow, 
and the moon but dimly illuminated the scene when the 
citizens and soldiers, as if impelled by acts of vengeance, 
began to assemble on the streets. Taunts and jeers from 



46 JOHN HANCOCK. 

side to side became the order of the day. Had the com- 
mander of the troops been as desirous of preventing a 
quarrel as he pretended, he would have kept the troops 
in their barracks, instead of permitting them to roam the 
streets and stir up quarrels. By seven o'clock a large 
mob, armed with stones and clubs, were on King, now 
State street, shouting to the lawless soldiers: 

"Let us drive out these rascals ! They have no busi- 
ness here — drive them out !" 

Bands of soldiers were roaming about the streets boast- 
ing of their valor, cursing Hancock and Adams, and 
threatening them and their friends with the most dire 
vengeance. 

At last unable to longer endure their taunts, the peo- 
ple assailed them and drove them about the town, until 
Captain Preston, the officer of the day, sent eight armed 
men to help a soldier whom the mob was threatening. 
There was a collision, the soldiers fired, and three of the 
populace were killed and two mortally wounded. 

Preston and his soldiers were arrested and tried on the 
charge of murder; they were defended by John Adams, 
and acquitted. 

Hancock was shocked by the Boston massacre. He 
knew that technically and legally the mob was to blame, 
for they had acted in a lawless manner, but back of it 
all he saw the righteous indignation which had incited 
them to riot, and realized that this effusion of blood 
would not be the end. 

He was at the town gathering in the Old South Meet- 
ing-House, then the largest building in the city, where 



JOHN HANCOCK. 47 

a resolution was offered "that nothing could be expected 
to restore peace and prevent carnage, but an immediate 
removal of the troops." He was also one of the commit- 
tee of fifteen of which Samuel Adams was chairman 
that carried the resolution to Hutchinson and Dalrymple. 
This committee driven to desperation, became bold, and 
Adams addressing the governor said: 

"The people are determined to remove the troops out 
of town by force if they will not go voluntarily. They 
are not such people as formerly pulled down your house, 
that conduct these measures, but men of estates, men of 
religion. The people will come into us from all the 
neighboring towns; we shall have ten thousand men at 
our backs, and your troops will probably be destroyed 
by the people, be it called rebellion or what it may." 

Hutchinson answered: 

"An attack on the Kings troops would be high treas- 
on, and every man concerned in it would forfeit his life 
and estate." 

But after much parleying he promised to withdraw 
one regiment from the city. This, however did not pla- 
cate the enraged Americans, and Hancock was chosen 
on another committee representing the citizens of Boston 
to carry a resolution from the town meeting informing 
Hutchinson that it was "the unanimous opinion of the 
meeting, that the reply made to the vote of the inhabi- 
tants, presented to his honor this morning, is by no 
means satisfactory, and that nothing else will satisfy 
them but a total and immediate removal of all the 
troops. ' ' 



48 JOHN HANCOCK. 

The committee informed Hutchinson that there must 
be no more trifling with the will of the people. 

After a hasty conference between Hutchinson and 
Dairy mple it was decided to send the troops to Castle 
William. The committee returned to the meeting with 
the good news, and the old South Meeting-House rang 
with acclamations of joy. The troops were sent out of 
town as soon as it could be done, and the "Sons of Lib- 
erty" thus scored another victory. 

The crown officers continued to incite the colonists to 
resistance by their continual tantalizing conduct; display- 
ing both a hatred and weakness which only tended to in- 
crease the boldness of the Americans. 

The burning of the "'Gaspe'^ June 9, 1772, prompted 
by the insolence of her commander was only one of many 
daring and lawless deeds of the time. It seemed that 
the most tyrannical and over-bearing officers were placed 
over the colonists to excite them to greater rage. 

Considering the timidity of wealthy men of the present, 
one might think Hancock, though a patriot, would have 
been more conservative for the sake of his property. He 
was in greater peril than any other, for he was more eas- 
ily injured. His wealth consisted of houses and land in 
the city of Boston as well as his ships on the seas, all of 
easy access to the crown. 

But Hancock was no "latter-day patriot," and neither 
danger to his person nor fortune intimidated him. He 
was not even what one would call conservative, for he 
"advocated armed resistance to oppression, even when 
Otis, the Adamses, and others were depending on the law 



JOHN HANCOCK. 4q 

and constitution. "Of what avail is law and constitu- 
tion when administered by tyrants who violate it them- 
selves?" argued Hancock. 

This was dangerous doctrine at a time when a single 
spark might set the whole magazine aflame. Of all the 
patriots of his day, he was one of the most daring. He 
was at most of the town- meetings, served on dangerous 
committees, and whether addressing the mob on the 
street, or members of the Colonial assembly, his lan- 
guage was bold, courageous, but marked with dignity and 
erudition. 

He faced the inevitable and accepted the issue as from 
the hand of fate. At the funeral of the victims of the 
Boston massacre, he delivered an address, so glowing 
and fearless in its reprobation of the conduct of the sol- 
diery and their leaders, as to greatly offend the governor. 

The year 1773 marked another era in the trouble be- 
tween Great Britain and her Colonies. The determina- 
tion to force tea upon them culminated in another riot, 
but one without blood-shed. 

Early on Monday morning, November 29, 1773, hand 
bills were scattered all over Boston containing the fol- 
lowing, 

"Friends! Bretheren! Countrymen! That worst of 
plagues, the detested tea, shipped for this port by the 
East India Company, is now arrived in the harbor; the 
hour of destruction, or manly opposition to the machin- 
ations of tyranny, stares you in the face; every friend to 
his country, to himself and posterity is now called upon 
to meet at Faneuil Hall, at nine o'clock, this day, at 



50 JOHN HANCOCK. 

which time the bells will ring, to make united and suc- 
cessful resistance to this last, worst, and most destructive 
measure of administration." 

The subject of this sketch may have been the author 




"Tea Party" House, Tremont Street. Boston. Built 1735. 
(Copyrisht by W. A French.) 

of the above call. At any rate he was at the meeting in 
Faneuil Hall, which proving too small, they adjourned 
to the famous old South Meeting-House, where the peo- 
ple resolved that the tea should not be landed. 

The meeting "moved the captain of the ^Dartmouth'' 
not to attempt to land the tea." A number of post rid- 
ers were appointed to carry the news to other towns, in 
case there should be an attempt to land by force. 



JOHN HANCOCK. 51 

The consignees offered to store the tea until they 
could hear from England; but the Bostonians were de- 
termined. "Not a pound shall be landed," was their 
declaration. 

On the 14th of December it was resolved to order Mr. 
Rotch to immediately apply for a clearance for his ship, 
and send her to sea, as all his cargo had been landed ex- 
cept the tea. 

In the meantime the stubborn Governor had deter- 
mined the ship should not leave the harbor before the 
tea was landed, and took measures to prevent her sailing 
until he had forced the obnoxious article on the people 
of Boston. 

He wrote to the ministry, advising the prosecution of 
some of the Sons of Liberty in Boston, for high crimes 
and misdemeanors. He ordered Admiral Montague to 
place two armed ships at the entrance to Boston Harbor 
to prevent the egress of vessels; and directed Colonel 
Leslie, who was in command at the Castle, not to allow 
any vessel to pass out from the range of his great guns, 
without a permit signed by himself. 

Mr, Rotch was refused clearance from the custom- 
house officers, and appealed to the Governor, but was 
again refused a clearance, until he landed the tea. The 
people said it should not be landed, and the Governor 
determined to force it upon them. The great old South 
Meeting-House was crowded to its utmost. 

Josiah Quincy, a young lawyer feeble in body, but a 
giant in intellect, delivered a stirring address to the 
people. He spoke until after sunset, and candles were 



52 JOHN HANCOCK. 

lighted, and concluded just before Mr. Rotcli returned 
with the information that the Governor had peremptori- 
ly refused him permission to send his vessel to sea, be- 
fore the tea was landed. 

A murmur ran over the vast assembly, which was 
hushed when Samuel Adams rose to his feet. His 
speech was not long, but it was significant. It bid fare- 
well to peaceful and lawful measures and threw the 
people upon themselves for recourse. In an even clear 
voice he said: 

"This meeting can do no more to save the country." 

At that moment a person painted and dressed like a 
Mohawk Indian gave a war-whoop in the gallery, which 
was responded to in kind at the door. Another voice in 
the gallery shouted: 

"Boston Harbor a teapot to-night! Hurrah for Grif- 
fin's wharf. ' ' 

The meeting adjourned, and the people hurried in a 
throng to the wharf, following a number of men dis- 
guised as Indians. The populace cheered. Guards were 
posted to keep order, and among them was Hancock, 
whom nothing seemed to daunt. He took no pains to 
conceal his identity, and w^hile he took no part in the 
destruction of the tea, he aided in keeping the great 
throng of onlookers quiet while the deed was done, pre- 
venting any further rioting. 

About fifty-nine young men, most of whom were dis- 
guised as Indians, though some were not disguised at 
all, went on board the tea-ships, and in the course of 
three hours, emptied three hundred and forty-two chests 



JOHN HAN'COCK. 53 

of tea into the harbor. Events seemed to rush on the 
heels of each other, so swiftly did they come about. 
The destruction of the tea in Boston Harbor only wid- 
ened the breach between Great Britain and her colonies. 

1774 was an auspicious year not only in Hancock's 
life but in the history of the American people. He was 
made a member of the committee on correspondence, 
and was kept busy night and day, preparing the people 
of the province for energetic action. The importance of 
these committees may be understood by the estimate 
placed on them by a Tory who wrote of them: 

"This is the foulest, subtlest, and most venomous ser- 
pent ever issued from the egg of sedition. // is the 
source of rebellion. * * * " 

Hutchinson was supplanted by General Gage, who 
sent four additional regiments to Boston. About this 
time the Boston Port Bill became known to the people 
of the city. 

While Gage was being dined by the magistrates and 
others on his arrival in Boston May 13, 1774, the en- 
raged populace were burning his predecessor in effigy on 
the broad common in front of John Hancock's house. 

Gage came to Boston fully warned of Hancock, and 
prepared to take the most extreme measures against him 
and Adams. Not only had Hancock been the most ac- 
tive of the committee of correspondence, but had urged 
a general congress, which measure caused the crown 
grave apprehensions. 

The circular letter explained why Massachusetts had 
been under the necessity of proceeding to extreme meas- 



54 JOHN HANCOCK. 

ures, and entreated for future gnidance the benefit of the 
councils of the whole country. 

On March 5, 1774, Hancock spoke to a largfe audience 
in Boston with his usual logic and boldness. In the 
course of his speech he said: 

"Pennit nie to suggest a general CongTcss of deputies 
from the several houses of assembly on the continent, as 
the most effectual method of establishing a union for the 
security of our rights and liberties. Remember from 
whom you sprang. Not only pray, but act; if necessary 
fight and even die for the prosperity of our Xew Jerusa- 
lem." 

To General Gage, with his ideas of the divine rights 
of kings and royalists, this speech breathed treason of 
the darkest hue. The British ministry put great reli- 
ance in the military ability of Gage to o\er-awe the re- 
bellious subjects of ^Massachusetts. 

Almost the first act of the Governor was to make 
Hancock the object of his official displeasure. In less 
than three months after his arrival he revoked his com- 
mission in the Boston cadets, and that company resented 
the insult by returning the king's standard and dis- 
bandino;. 

Alarmed at the rebellious spirit manifested by the col- 
onists, Gage removed the seat of government from Salem 
back to Boston, and began to fortify the Neck. Some 
of the troops further aggravated matters by seizing a 
quantity of gunpowder at Charleston and Cambridge 
which belonged to the province. 

A convention was held September 6, 1774, at which 



JOHN HANCOCK. 55 

it was resolved that no obedience was due to any part of 
the late acts of Parliament. On the day before the 
meeting of the convention, the Oeneral Continental 
Congress met in Philadelphia, and the information of 
the firm course it took, ^^reatly strengthened the cause 
of liberty in Massachusetts. The patriots of Boston be- 
gan to assume a bolder tone. 

Oage sunnnoncd the House of Representatives to meet 
at Salem, to proceed to business, according to the new 
order of things under the late acts of Parliament. 

Town meetings were held, but so revolutionary were 
their proceedings, that Gage countermanded his order 
for the assembly. His right to countermand was denied, 
and most of the members elect, to the number of ninety, 
met at Salem. On the day of appointment, of course 
Gage was not there, and as nobody appeared to open the 
court, or administer the oaths, they resolved themselves 
into a provincial Congress and adjtnirned to Concord. 
P,y this act Massachusetts had really set up an indepen- 
dent government in opposition to the king. 

At Concord they organized by choosing Jc^hn Hancock 
president, and Benjamin Lincoln, afterwards a general 
in the Revolutionary army, secretary. Mr. Hancock 
presided with that dignity and wisdom over the deliber- 
ations of the provincial Congress which the grave condi- 
tions of their country required. Practically in open re- 
bellion against his king the presiding officer realized his 
position, and though his conduct was marked with 
caution, there was no vascillation, hesitation, or weak- 
ness in any of his actions. 



56 JOHN HANCOCK. 

The denunciations of Gage had no other effect than to 
increase the zeal of the patriots. The provincial Con- 
gress proceeded to appoint a Committee of Safety at the 
head of which was Hancock, giving this committee the 
power to call out the militia. 

A committee was appointed to provide communication 




Wright Tavern, Concord. Mass. Built 1747. 

and stores, and the sum of sixty thousand dollars was 
appropriated for tliat purpose. Provisions were also 
made for arming the people of the province. 

Henry Gardner was appointed treasurer of the colony 
under the title of Receiver General, into whose hands 
the constables and tax-collectors were directed to pay all 



JOHN HANCOCK. 57 

public moneys which they received. Jedediah Preble, 
Artemas Ward, and Seth Potneroy were appointed offi- 
cers of the militia; though Ward and Pomeroy alone 
entered upon the duty of organizing the military. Am- 
munition and stores were speedily collected at Concord, 
Woburn and other places. Mills were erected for mak- 
ing gunpowder; manufactories were set up for making 
arms, and great encouragement given for the production 
of saltpeter, 

The provincial Congress disavowed any intention of 
attacking the British soldiers, and only claimed to be 
preparing for their own defence, yet they took measures 
to cut off their supplies from the country. 

Governor Gage issued a proclamation denouncmg 
their proceedings, but it did not disturb the equilibrium 
of the members who, under the guidance and leadership 
of their able president, went steadily on with their busi- 
ness. As the acts of the provincial Congress had all the 
authority of law, the Governor was unsupported save by 
his troops and a few officials and their friends in the 
city. 

On the 23d of November the provincial Congress vot- 
ed to enroll twelve thousand militia, to be drilled and 
ready at a moment's notice to take the field. These 
were called Minute ]\Ien. 

The influence of John Hancock and Samuel Adams 
was felt outside of their own colony; for they extended 
invitations to Rhode Island and Connecticut to follow 
their example. The Massachusetts Provincial Congress 
elected delegates to the general Congress which was to 



58 JOHN HANCOCK. 

meet again in May, 1775. Two new generals were ap- 
pointed for the minute men, Generals Thomas and 
Heath, and it then adjourned to meet early in 1775. 

Gage very naturally looked upon the whole proceed- 
ing as decidedly revolutionary, and regarded Hancock 
and Adams as the chief instigators of the rebellion. 

He prepared for extreme measures, but long months 
rolled by before open hostilities began. The more con- 
servative of the patriots hoped that revolution and the 
consequent war which would follow, might be averted. 
While they began to realize the probability of a new 
nation, even Hancock shuddered at the thought of the 
long bloody war that must follow a severance from the 
mother country. 

The Boston Port Bill, which was a direct blow at 
Hancock's commercial business, ruined it, and paralyzed 
every other business in which he was engaged. Yet he 
was of a sanguine temperament, ever cheerful, and 
never doubted the ultimate result of the great struggle 
for liberty. 

If the king did not give the Americans liberty they 
would take it, he argued. 

He was not mistaken in the men on whose valor and 
powers of endurance he relied. Many of them had al- 
ready seen service in the long Indian wars in which 
they had engaged, and won honors on bloody fields. 
The younger men who were to fight the battles of the 
revolution, were sons of battle scarred veterans, and ac- 
customed to fire-arms from early boyhood. 

All that long winter during 1774 and 1775 the gun- 



JOHN HANCOCK. 59 

smiths were kept busy, turning out arms destined to do 
effective service. The minute men were mustered regu- 
larly for drill and discipline. Often during the. winter 
the cowshed and even the village church became their 
drilling halls. The good pastors caught the fires of lib- 
erty and from their pulpits poured forth their patriotic 




Old Butler House, Quincy, Mass. Home of Dorothy Quincy. 

souls, making strong the weakest arm. 

All Massachusetts, in fact all North America, had 
caught the inspiration from the little band of patriots in 
Massachusetts. 

But there is one incident in Hancock's life which 
partakes of romance. In his case Cupid went hand in 
hand with Mars. 

He was still a young man, still unmarried, but his 



6o JOHN H.WCOCK. 

heart had betn stirred by tenderer emotions than politics 
and war. The soft eyes of Dorothy Quincy, one of the 
fairest maids of all New England had won the affections 
of this stern patriot, brave soldier, orator and statesman. 
Even his pressing;' dnties, the distant thunder of approach- 
ing war with all the rush of preparation did not pre\"ent 
him from occasionally stealing away from the turmoil, 
vexation, and annoyance of public duties to spend a 
pleasant hour in her society. 

Dorothy was as patriotic as her lover, and aided him 
with her valuable counsel, giving him such encourage- 
ment as only a pure, noble woman can. Being an ar- 
dent lover of liberty, her sympathies went out to the op- 
pressed and struggling colonies. 

Early in 1775 it became rumored that Governor Gage 
desired to get Hancock and Samuel Adams in his power, 
but their constant vigilance proved more than a match 
for his strategy. 

Hancock had a host of fast friends in Boston as well 
as in other places in Nevv England, who kept him post- 
ed of the governors designs, so that he continually 
thwarted him. Among the friends of the patriot was 
Paul Revere whose famous ride to Lexington has formed 
the theme of patriotic song and story, for more than a 
hundred years. 

Boston was no longer safe for either Hancock or Sam- 
uel Adams, and they spent most of the late winter and 
early spring at Concord, or in other parts of the colony, 
when the Congress was not in session, encouraging the 
minute men, looking after supplies and arms, and pre- 



JOHN HANCOCK. 6i 

paring foi the final clash of arms when t je time should 
come. 

The Continental Congress had petitioned to Parlia' 
/nent for redress of their wrongs, but their petition was 
treated with contempt, and the people were left without 
redress. 

The first effort of the military to subdue the colonists 
was at Salem, the object of which was to seize some old 
cannon at that place. The British troops arrived on 
Sunday when the people were at church. On learning 
of their approach, the congregation was dismissed, and 
led by Colonel Timothy Pickering, they met the Britons 
at the drawbridge, and the red-coats retired without a 
shot being exchanged. 

Though this first encounter was bloodless, Hancock 
declared it was only the precursor of sanguinary conflicts 
soon to follow. The air was full of revolutionary utter- 
ances and thought, and it seemed as if the lightning of 
popular wrath was about to kindle a mighty conflagra- 
tion. 

On both sides watchful eyes never slept, and watchful 
ears were always open to catch au)- utterance that might 
fall from the lips of a foe. All through IMarch and far 
into April, Boston was like a seething cauldron of in- 
tense feeling. 

Gage, the stern .soldier, who was supposed to have an 
iron will, proved a failure, and became irresolute and 
timid. Under his command were four thousand well 
armed, equipped and disciplined soldiers, competently 
officered, and yet for a long time he hesitated. He de- 



62 JOHN HANCOCK. 

pended too long on the presence of his armed hosts to 
overawe the colonists, who instead of being frightened 
grew bolder and stronger every day. 

At last he determined to "nip the rebellion in the 
bnd," by seizing Hancock and Adams and sending them 
to England on the charge of treason. As Hancock and 
Adams were still at Concord, he decided that the expe- 
dition sent to capture them would also seize the muni- 
tions of war, which he had been informed were stored at 
the latter place. His brilliant coup d'etat was to be kept 
a profound secret until the last moment. 

The Provincial Congress at Concord adjourned April 
15th, and Hancock and Adams started back to Boston. 
Their movements were slow and marked with extreme 
caution, for it had been reported that parties of troops 
were making incursions into the country. 

Being mounted on fleet horses they had little fears of 
being caught in a fair chase; but as the treacherous 
enemy were not above kidnapping, or assassination, they 
had to exercise the greatest possible care. 

They had almost reached Lexington when they discov- 
ered a horseman speeding toward them like the wind. 
They drew rein and waited for him to approach near 
enough to be recognized. He proved to be a friend 
from Boston with the information that a loyal lady in 
that city whose husband was a Tory had, by an inter- 
cepted letter from London, learned that Gage was deter- 
mined to arrest both Hancock and Adams and send them 
to England for trial on charge of treason. This messen- 
ger also brought information from the same source that 



JOHN HANCOCK. 63 

troops would in a few days, perhaps a few hours, be 
sent to Concord to apprehend them. 

On this intelligence their friends in Boston had ad- 
vised all to move their plate and valuables, and the 
Committee of Safety had voted that all the ammunition 
be deposited in nine different towns. 

Hancock and Adams were only a mile from Lexing- 
ton when they received this alarming intelligence, and 
they held a brief discussion on the situation, then rode 
slowly to the village. 

It was prudence and not cowardice which made them 
heed the warning. Both of these heroes had proven 
their courage on more than a score of occasions, when 
they had defied the haughty officers of a foolish king to 
their faces. 

On their arrival at Lexington they found the little 
village, so soon to be drenched with blood, wild with 
excitement. Their friends gathered about them and in 
alarm entreated them to remain at the village, until 
they could learn what course of action the British Gov- 
ernor and his detestable soldiers intended pursuing. 

Hancock was easily persuaded to remain in Lexing- 
ton, not so much from any fear of the king's soldiers in 
Boston as a peculiarly strong attraction in the village. 

When it was whispered in the ear of the gallant pa- 
triot that the fair Dorothy Quincy was a guest at the 
home of the Reverend Jonas Clark, the battle was won 
so far as detaining him was concerned. 

The good pastor, Mr. Clark, invited both the states- 
men to become his guests, where they were warmly 



64 JOHN HANCOCK. 

welcomed and every needful precaution taken by the 
good people of Lexington to guard them against sur- 
prise and capture. Hancock and Adams both supposed 
that if Governor Gage really designed to capture them, 




Jim iiiiiilllllllijilii.tl!'' 'ilipili'llllliJiiii'i 



B' 




' -'r^^ii -tH 



Hancock or Clark Wouse, Liexington, Mass. 

Residence of Rev. John Hancock for 55 yeai's, and of Rev. Jonas Clark for 50 

years. John Hancock and Samuel Adams were sleeping here 

when aroused by Paul Revere. 

he would only send a small company of light dragoons 
to accomplish the purpose. 

There has been much dispute in regard to the chief 
design of Governor Gage in sending the troops under 
Smith and Pitcairn to Lexington and Concord. While 
many good authorities affirm his main intention was to 
seize the military stores at Concord, at the same time no 



JOHN HANCOCK. 65 

one doubts that he hoped to also effect the capture of 
Hancock and Adams. Perhaps he had both ends in 
view. In order to accomplish his purpose, the soldiers 
who were to do the work, were to leave Boston secretly 
in the evening, at a time that would enable them to 
reach Lexington at an hour past midnight, while the 
doomed patriots slept. 

It was the design of the troops after capturing them 
to move rapidly on to Concord which was only six miles 
further, and seize or destroy the cannon and military 
stores which the patriots had succeeded in gathering 
there. 

Preparations for this expedition began the very day 
the Provincial Congress adjourned. On that day eight 
hundred grenadiers and infantry were detached from the 
main body and marched to a different part of the town, 
under pretense of teaching them some new military 
movements. The transport boats which had been 
hauled up for repairs, were launched at night and 
moored under the stern of the man of war. 

Dr. Warren, one of the most watchful of the patriots, 
sent notice to Hancock of these suspicious movements, 
who being chairman of the Committee of Safety, before 
leaving Concord, had caused the principal part of the 
stores at that village to be removed to a more secure 
place. 

To prevent a knowledge of his intended expedition 
spreading into the country. Gage sent out a number of 
his officers to post themselves along the several roads 
leadinof to and from Boston. In order to more effectu- 



66 JOHN HANCOCK. 

ally succeed and allay suspicion these officers were sent 
out one at a time. 

The Sons of Iviberty were watchful, however, and one 
of them discovering so many strangers on the road sus- 
pected that their design was the capture of Hancock and 
Adams, and hastening to Lexington informed Colonel 
Monroe, then sergeant of a military company. That of- 
ficer, supposing the effort would be made by a small 
party with the intention to kidnap the two patriots, col- 
lected a guard of eight welj-armed men to protect the 
house of Reverend Jonas Clark, on that memorable 
night of the eighteenth. 

The interest the people took in the security and wel- 
fare of the great advocates of Liberty is indicative of the 
interest they had in the cause. Every man in Lexing- 
ington seemed willing if necessary to shed his blood for 
Hancock and Adams. 

The village of Lexington which, at that time, accord- 
ing to Mr. Bancroft, may have had seven hundred in- 
habitants, was in a fever of excitement, when the day 
closed. 

Captain Parker had notified the minute men of the 
expected advance of the enemy, and about seventy of his 
company reported at roll call. They were told to hold 
themselves in readiness and fall in line at the first tap 
of the drum, and defend their liberties with their lives. 

The sun set and left all quiet in Lexington, though 
there was a feverish state of excitement even in the si- 
lence. Men stood about in little groups with pale faces 
but firm lips. Occasionally there was a whispered con- 



JOHN HANCOCK. 67 

ference in the shadow of some building, or under the 
spreading branches of some large tree. 

The wives and daughters of the patriots of the village 
seemed to feel that inexpressible emotion of awe which 
follows the sure conclusion that something terrible will 
happen in a short time. Mothers hurriedly put their 
children to bed and fell on their knees in prayer. 

All felt the hour had come, when blood must be shed 
or the chains of slavery forever forged. 

No one thought of retreat or surrender at that mo- 
ment, but being children of peace, rather than discord 
they would have much preferred to avoid a conflict if they 
could without sacrifice of their liberty. 

The eight minute men detailed to guard the home of 
Mr. Clark, in which slept Hancock and Adams, silently 
took their position, and an armed sentry began pacing 
his beat before the door. 

Hancock remained up late that evening, conversing 
with Dorothy Quincy. Fully realizing the gravity of 
the situation, their conversation was more serious than 
usual for lovers. 

Even then, unknown to him and his betrothed, a 
great body of men was moving with steady tread toward 
the village. No doubt each felt impressed that the 
crisis which had so long been approaching was close at 
hand, and they would shortly be called to face the terri- 
ble realities of war. 

When they separated that night to retire, they fully 
understood each other. Dorothy insisted that she would 
accompany him and share his danger wherever he went. 



68 JOHN HANCOCK. 

As the hours went by, one by one the inmates retired 
and the candles were extinguished. Only the ticking 
of the great clock in the hall and the slow measured 
tread of the sentry broke the silence. Light fleecy 
clouds floated beneath the sky, and the moon gave fitful 




Old Belfry, Ijexintrton, Miis.s. Erecled 1761. 

In this belfry was hunt; the bell which runtr mil the alarm of the approach of 

the British Troops. April lOlh, 1775. 

gleams of light. At one moment it shed a flood of silver 
on the quiet village, and at the next coyly withdrew be- 
hind a cloud as if ashamed of its boldness. 

The sentry with his musket on his shoulder drowsily 
paced his beat, occasionally halting to yawn and wish 
himself at home in bed. 



jOHxN MAKCOCK. 60 

A little past midnight the loud clatter of horse's hoofs 
coming down the hard beaten road from the direction of 
the city, fell on the ear of the drowsy sentry. He paused 
in his beat, started in surprise, and rubbing his eyes was 
half inclined to believe he was dreaming. No, there it 
came again nearer and more distinct, and the next mo- 
ment he saw a horseman mounted on a foaming steed 
galloping toward the house. 

"Halt!" cried the sentry. His challenge at once 
brought Sergeant Monroe to his side. 

The horseman paid no heed to the challenge, but 
thundered up to the house and in a voice which be- 
trayed deepest anxiety, asked: 

"Where is Mr. Hancock?" 

Sergeant Monroe, anxious that the rest of the family 
should not be broken, answered: 

"The family have retired, and I am directed not to let 
them be disturbed by any noise." 

"Noise!" exclaimed the horseman, who was none 
other than Paul Revere, "You will have noise enough 
before long; the regulars are coming out, I am going 
to knock on the door and warn Mr. Hancock before he 
is surrounded." 

Mr. Clark, who had just retired but was not asleep, 
opened the door and asked: 

"Who is there?" 

"I want to see Mr. Hancock," Revere hurriedly an- 
swered. 

Mr. Clark not being acquainted with Paul Revere, 
hesitated a moment and said: 



70 JOHN HANCOCK. 

"I do not like to admit strangers into my house so 
late at night" 

Mr. Hancock, who was still awake, recognized the 
voice of the messenger without as his friend, and throw- 
ing open a window called out: 

".Come in, Revere; we are not afraid of j'(9//." 

Paul leaped from his jaded steed and hurried into the 
house, where he was almost immediately surrounded by 
Mr. Jonas Clark and his guests, listening with breath- 
less eagerness to the strange wild story which the horse- 
man had to tell. For the first time he told how he had 
been warned by the signal lights from the old belfry, of 
the advance of the British. His own thrilling adven- 
tures familiar to every school boy caused a thrill of 
mingled interest and alarm in his eager listeners. 

Throughout that thrilling recital, Hancock was per- 
haps the most cool and unconcerned, though he knew 
he was a special object for the Governor's wrath. A 
very serious question arose in the minds of all. What 
were the two men who were the heads of the Provincial 
Government to do ? 

The good parson at once began to urge them to retire 
to some place of safety, but both were opposed to such 
an act of cowardice. Hancock argued that their lives 
were no more precious than the lives of the minute men 
who, under the brave Captain Parker, at that moment 
were mustering on the green, for it was now two o'clock 
in the morning. 

It was nearly daylight, when through the persuasion 
and appeals of Miss Quincy, Hancock agreed to retire 



JOHN HANCOCK. 71 

with Mr. Adams to Woburn. Dorothy Quincy accom- 
panied her lover and his companion from Lexington. 

It was already growing light in the east, when the 
sound of fife and drum on the distant road caused them 




Line of the Minute Men, Lexington, Mass. 
in the Bacicground. 



Harrington House 



to halt for a few moments on an eminence to give one 
last glance at that handful of brave men, drawn up on 
the green under Captain Parker, to shed their blood in 
the cause of freedom. How brave, how silent those 
martyrs stood. 

Only for a moment did they gaze on them, then re- 
sumed their flight, and the hills and trees just concealed 



72 JOHN HANCOCK. 

Lexington common and the brave defenders, when those 
distant shots "which were heard 'round the world" 
broke on the shuddering air. 

"Oh God! They have fired on our people!" exclaimed 
Dorothy. 

"It is done," said Hancock calmly. 

The die was cast. The war had begun, and Han- 
cock's heart and soul was in his country's cause. 

Though Hancock took no immediate part in the field, 
for his talents were needed in other directions, yet his 
heart was with the brave men who were spilling their 
blood for the liberties of future generations. 

Boston became the chief point of military interest. 
The Governor had received large reinforcements from 
England under Generals Howe, Burgoyne and Clinton, 
which made Boston the first point on which the Provin- 
cial Congress recommended the council of war to con- 
centrate their forces. 

Gage proclaimed martial law throughout Massachu- 
setts; but offered a pardon to all rebels who would re- 
turn to their allegiance, with two conspicuous excep- 
tions, John Hancock and Samuel Adams. These two 
exceptions were made with the discrimination that, 
"Their offences are of too flagitious a nature to admit of 
any other consideration than that of condign punish- 
ment" This virulent proscription, made after efforts to 
corrupt them with gold and power, though intended for 
their ruin, widely extended their fame. 

Hancock was a member of the Continental Congress 
which met at Philadelphia May loth, beyond the reach 



JOHN HANCOCK. 73 

of Governor Gage. On the 24tli of that month, the 
chair of the president becoming vacant by the departure 
of Peyton Randolph, Mr. Hancock was elected by a 
unanimous vote to fill it. 

Mr. Harrison of Virmnia had all along been classed as 




Monument unci Concord Bridge, with Statue of Minute Man in the Baclife'round, 
Concord, Ma«s. 

among the conservative members, but as he conducted 
Mr. Hancock to the chair, he said: 

*'We will now show Great Britain how much we value 
her proscriptions." 

Gage thought the election of Hancock to the Presi- 
dency of the Continental Congress a personal affront; 
but whether it was so intended or not, a more fitting 



74 JOHN HANCOCK. 

official could not have been selected. In that office he 
put forth some of his most valuable labors. The same 
dignity, clear sightedness and courage, which had char- 
acterized his career, was marked during his term as 
president. 

But sudden honors, trying scenes, war and wrangling 
statesmen, did not for a moment stifle the tender flame 
of love in Hancock's breast. On the 28th day of August, 
1775, he stole away for a day to Fairfield, Connecticut, 
and was married to Dorothy Quincy, who had shared his 
dangers in the flight on that dismal morn from Lexington. 

Hancock is known mainly by his public life, but he 
was a kind and indulgent husband, and ever the hero of 
his devoted wife. He was domestic, though his public 
duties robbed him of much home enjoyment. But one 
child, a son, was born of this union, who died at an ear- 
ly age. 

The Continental Congress soon found itself burdened 
with the question of a continental army. Each colony 
so far had been fighting the trained armies of Great 
Britain alone, and some sort of a united effort became a 
necessity. 

The President of the Congress being one among the 
first to urge a general Congress of all the colonies, was 
also one among the first to urge an army. When pro- 
visions had been made for an army, then followed a dis- 
cussion on the subject of a commander-in-chief. 

Colonel George Washington, from Virginia, a modest, 
quiet, yet thoughtful man, had been a member of the 
Continental Congress since its first session. 



JOHN HANCOCK. 



75 



On June i4tli John Adams, in a brief speech, delinea- 
ted the qualities which he deemed essential in the man 
they were to choose commander, and announced his in- 
tention to propose for that office a delegate from Vir- 
ginia sitting in the house. All knew to whom Mr. Ad- 




Washington Elm, Cambridge, Mass. Under this tree Washington took 
command of the American army. 

ams referred, and on the following day, Thomas John- 
son, of Maryland, nominated Colonel Washington, who 
was elected by acclamation. 

The battle of Bunker Hill had been fought, and the 
colonists were already besieging Boston. Washington 
hastened to the beleagured city, and under the old elm 



76 jon\ HANCOCK. 

at Cambridge, assnmc<l command of the Contiiieulal 
anil)', while Hancock remained at Philadelphia as Presi- 
dent of the Continental Congress. 

He wrote to Washington expressing a wish to ser\'e 
nndcr him, bnt it was apparent to all that brave as he 
was, Hancock was better fitted for a statesman than 
soldier. 

The disinterestedness of the President of the Continen- 
tal Congress was never more clearly shown than dnring 
the siege of Boston. Soon after Washington assumed 
command of the army, the question of bombarding that 
city presented itself to the commander-in-chief, and he 
wrote to Congress in regard to the propriety of such a 
course. Hancock, perhaps, was more deeply interested 
in Boston than any other person, as nearly all his prop- 
erty at this time consisted of houses and real estate in 
the city. 

On motion Congress went into a committee of the 
whole to enable Mr. Hancock to express his opinion. 
A member was temporarily called to the chair, and the 
patriot took his place on the floor to address the chair- 
man. 

His speech was filled with eloquence, patriotism and 
self-sacrifice, concluding with the following forcible ex- 
pression: 

, "It is true, sir, that nearly all I have in the world is 
in the town of Boston, but if the expulsion of the Brit- 

I ish troops and the liberty of my country demand that 
they be burned to ashes, issue the order, and let the can- 
non blase awayP'' 



JOHN HANCOCK. 



n 



In forwarding the resolve to Washington, Hancock 
announced it as having been adopted after a long and 
serious debate, and added : 

' 'May God crown your attempt with success. I most 
heartily wish it, though individually I may be the great- 
est sufferer." 




Holmes House. Cambridge. Mass. Built 1725. 
Headquarters of American officers during the Siege of Boston. The Battle of 
Bunker Hill was planned here. This was also the birthplace of Oliver Wendell 

Holmes. (Copyright, 1894, by W. A. French.) 

In February, 1776, Hancock, though still president of 
the Continental Congress, was appointed by the Provin- 
cial Congress of Massachusetts one of the Major Generals 
of militia of that colony. 

The signing of the Declaration of Independence is an 
old story known to every schoolboy; but John Hancock 
is so closely associated with that event that to avoid a 




78 JOHN HANXOCK. 

brief mention of it would be to slight the most import- 
ant part of his biography. 

The average reader knows but little of this great man, 
save that he was first to sign the declaration, and his is 
the most striking and beautiful chirography of all those 
brave men who appended their names to the immortal 
document. 

Hancock occupying the chair of president heard the 
great speeches for and against the meas- 
ure, while his soul thrilled with the 
enthusiasm of freedom. His anxiety 
had reached its utmost bounds, when 
on the Fourth of July, 1776, the thir- 
teen colonies by a unanimous vote de- 
chair used by Hancock clarcd thcuiselves Free and Indepen- 

while President of the j_, f Cfofoo 
Continental Congress. Oeni oiates. 

Carpenter s Hall. While old Liberty Bell was ringing 

out the glad tidings, and the assembled thousands 
about the State House were shouting themselves hoarse 
with joy, John Hancock, remembering that he had 
been proscribed, dipped his pen in the ink, and affixing 
'. that immortal signature to the document which made his 
\country free, exclaimed: 

\ "There ! John Bull can read that without spectacles. 
Now let him double his reward." 

The heroism that inspired Luther to go to Worms 
"though a devil sat on every housetop," inspired the 
heart of the patriot to act with a boldness that stunned 
the old world. To free his country was his life work, 
and he did it with a stroke of his pen. 



John hancock. 79 

On the day of its adoption, the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence was signed by John Hancock and the Secreta- 
ry only, and thus it went forth to the world. It was sev- 
eral months before all the names which now appear to 
the document, were appended. 

Hancock's wisdom and sagacity during his term as 
president, while it at times brought down the censure of 
some of his friends at home, no doubt saved the States 
from internecine quarrels that might have cost them 
their independence. 

Some of the injudicious New Englanders desired with 
the Declaration of Independence, to precipitate the 
emancipation of slavery. The President of the Conti- 
nental Congress knew full well that such a measure 
was unwise, as it would divide the states at a time when 
they most needed the united strength of the whole coun- 
try. So bitter was the feeling engendered against Han- 
cock by some of the narrow men of the North, that when 
Congress came to tender a vote of thanks for his ser- 
vices, some of the northernmost States voted in the 
negative, while the South gave him a solid vote, and 
were always his best friends. 

"It is unwise, it is foolish to engage in internal quar- 
rels when we have a common cause at stake!" Hancock 
declared when rebuked by some of his New England 
friends for the course he had taken on the slavery ques- 
tion. Yet that course made him many enemies among 
the opponents of slavery, who had done their share to 
dim the lustre of the hero's glory. 

The remainder of his career as President of the Con- 



<!o JOHN HANCOCK. 

tinental Congress is maikcd by no oonspiciions act. It 
\vas a continuous stiugglo to snpplv the new arni\ , .imi 
more than the ordinavv wianv^ling oi Icgislalixc hoilics 
ensued. 

The ambition of the President ot" the Conlinenial Con- 
oress was to serve his country in the field ralht v than in 
CongTc^^s. Resides his health became impaired. The 
British had been driven out of I'ostmi, ami he was 
anxious to visit his home and look after his shattered 
fortune, which had suffered from EnoHsh tlepredations 
during the siege; so he left Cmigress in 1777, ami went 
to Boston. 

As a presiding officer, Mr. Hancock was dignifieil, 
impartial, cpiick of apprehension ami aiwa\s commanded 
the respect of the bodies over which he presided. 

In 1778 having somewhat regained his health, he as- 
sumed actual command over a part of the Massachusetts 
militia. The chief military service of General IlancDck 
was in Rhode Island. 

The British occupied Newport, autl the Americans 
determined to dislodge or capture them. By this time 
France had espoused the cause of America, and Count 
D'P^staing with the French fleet appeared off" the harbor 
of Newport, July 29, 1778. 

The land forces under Generals Sullivan and Lafay- 
ette were reinforced by five thousand militia from Rhode 
Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut. General Han- 
cock was in connnand of the Massachusetts troops. 

So great was the enthusiasm engendered by the pres- 
ence of the French squadron, that thousands of volun- 



JOHN HANCOCK, 8l 

teers, "gentlemen and others," from Boston, Salem, 
Newburyport and Portsmouth engaged in the service. 
Two brigades of Continental infantry, under Lafayette, 
were sent from the main army; and the whole force ten 
thousand strong was arranged in two divisions under 
Lafayette and Greene. 

Just as the land and water forces were about to com- 
mence the attack, Admiral 
Howe with a fleet appeared 
off Newport harbor to pro- 
tect the British, and D'Es- 
taing weighed anchor and 
started to engage the Brit- 
ish war vessels in battle. 
While the two squadrons 
were maneuvering for the 
"weather gage," which is 
essential in a naval conflict 
with sailing vessels, they were struck with a violent gale 
which scattered the vessels, and some of the ships of 
both fleets sustained severe damage. The storm on land 
was as severe as on water, and the tents of the Americans 
were blown down, and much of their powder and pro- 
visions ruined by the rain which fell in torrents. 

Hancock's marquee was blown down several times in 
succession, and that officer was compelled to stand in 
the rain for several hours. Several soldiers died from 
exposure and a number of their horses perished during 
the night. 

Count D'Estaing after a slight engagement with the 




General Lafayette. 



82 JOHN HANCOCK. 

enemy put into the harbor, and although the Americans 
had suffered exceedingly from the storm, they were full 
of enthusiasm and anxious to make the attack. Their 
surprise and chagrin can be better imagined than des- 
cribed on being informed that though Count D'Estaing 
was in favor of engaging the enemy at once, his officers 
had by a council of war decided on returning to Boston 
for repairs. 

Hancock and Sullivan sent letters to the Count re- 
monstrating with him, but without avail, for the French 
fleet weio-hed anchor and sailed for Boston. The de- 
parture of the French squadron and the rain so discour- 
aged many of the volunteers that about three thousand 
of them quit the army and returned to their homes. 

Thus the American force was reduced to less than the 
British, who were strongly fortified and provided with 
shelter, against the inclement weather. Under such cir- 
cumstances, an assault upon the British lines was deemed 
hazardous, and a retreat thought prudent. 

Lafayette was despatched to Boston, to solicit the re- 
turn of D'Estaing to Newport, but he could only get a 
promise from that officer to march his troops by land to 
aid the Americans in the siege, if requested. Having 
been promoted from the land service, D'Estaing no 
doubt felt more at home on terra firma than on water. 
But it was too late for such a movement to be effective. 

On the night of the 28th the Americans commenced 
a retreat with great order and secrecy, and arrived at 
the high grounds of the island with all their artillery 
and stores, at three in the morning. Their retreat hav- 



JOHN HANCOCK. 83 

ing been discovered by the enemy, a pursuit was com- 
menced. The Americans had fortified an eminence 
called Butts Hill, about twelve miles from Newport. 
Here they made a stand, and at daylight held a council 
of war. General Greene proposed to march back and 
meet the enemy on the west road, then approaching in 
detachments, and consist- 



ing only of the Hessian 
chasseurs and two of Ans- 
p a c h regiments under 
Lossberg. 

On the east road was 
General Smith, with two 
regiments and two flank- 
ing companies. To the 
former were opposed the 
light troops of Lieuten- 
ant Colonel Laurens, and 
to the latter those of Col- 
onel Henry B. Livingston. 

Greene's advice was 
overruled, and the enemy 
were allowed to collect 




View of the Two Sides of a Hessian Flag. 



in force upon the two eminences called respectively 
Quaker and Turkey Hill. A large detachment of the 
enemy marched very near to the American left, but 
were repulsed by Glover, and driven back to Quaker 
Hill. About nine o'clock the British opened a severe 
cannonade upon the Americans from the two hills, which 
was returned from Butts Hill with spirit. 



84 JOHN HANCOCK. 

Skirmishes continued between advanced parties until 
near ten, when two British sloops of war and other 
armed vessels, having gained the right flank of the 
Americans, opened a plunging fire simultaneously with 
a furious attack by the land forces of the enemy. This 
attempt to gain the rear of the Americans, and cut off a 
retreat, brought on an almost general action, in which 
from twelve to fifteen hundred of the patriots were en- 
gaged at one time. The enemy's line was finally broken, 
after a severe engagement, in attempts to take the re- 
doubt on the American right, and they were driven 
back in great confusion to Turkey Hill, leaving many 
of their dead and wounded on the low grounds between 
the contending armies, where the battle raged hottest. 

This was between two and three o'clock in the after- 
noon of a very sultry day, and a number on both sides 
perished from the effects of heat and fatigue. A can- 
nonade was kept up by both parties until sunset, when 
the battle ceased. The skirmishing and more general 
action continued seven hours without intermission, and 
the most indomitable courage was evinced in both ar- 
mies. 

The American loss was thirty killed, one hundred and 
thirty-two wounded, and forty-four missing. The Brit- 
ish loss in killed, wounded and missing was two hundred 
and twenty-two. 

This was the greatest military expedition in which 
Hancock was actively engaged. Though he possessed 
some military qualifications, he was more of a statesman 
than soldier. He was brave, in fact, too brave; but after 



JOHN HANCOCK. 85 

all, courage is perhaps among the least qualifications of a 
general. Hancock's courage partook of rashness. 

In 1780, Hancock was a member of the convention for 
the forming a constitution for the State of Massachusetts, 
and was chosen the first governor; to which office, with 
an interval of two years he was annually re-elected un- 
til his death. His strong common sense, great decision 
of character, polished manners, affability, and charity 
made him exceeding popular. 

Yet he had his enemies in his day, and has them yet. 
It would be impossible for one with Hancock's remarka- 
ble force of character to achieve the greatness he did 
without making enemies. Even Mr. Bancroft calls him 
"vain and neglectful of public business," yet his patriot- 
ism, honesty and integrity could hardly be questioned 
even by his enemies. 

Perhaps he was guilty of the sin of neglect in some 
matters, but when we consider the magnitude and diver- 
sity of his business and official duties, we need not be 
surprised if some portions of them should suft'er from 
inattention. The Tory element, a trace of which can 
still be found in some portions of the eastern states, has 
always hated Hancock and taken measures to malign 
him as well as all other heroes of the Revolution. 

Hancock was Governor of Massachusetts during the 
exciting period of the adoption of the Federal Constitu- 
tion, and its final ratification by the several States; and 
his wisdom and firmness proved of great value in re- 
straining the lawless acts of those disaffected spirits 
toward the general Government. John Hancock acted 



86 JOHN HANCOCK. 

in many other official capacities, and always with vigor 
and decision of character. 

In society he was dignified and a great stickler for cor- 
rect etiquette and form. 

In 1790 President George Washington visited Massa- 
chusetts. Before the President's arrival, Governor Han- 
cock sent him an invitation "to lodge at his house'' in 
Boston. The invitation was declined. 

After the arrival of Washington, the Governor sent 
him an invitation to dine with him and his family, in- 
formally, that day, at the conclusion of the public recep- 
tion ceremonies. 

It was aiccepted by Washington with the understand- 
ing that the Governor would call upon him before the 
dinner hour. But "Hancock had conceived the proud 
notion that the Governor of a State within his own do- 
main was officially superior to the President of the 
United States, when he came into it." 

"He had laid his plans," says Mr. Lossing, "for as- 
serting this superiority by having Washington visit him 
first, and to this end he sent him an invitation to lodge 
and dine with him." 

Whether Governor Hancock had such designs on 
President Washington or not is a question still in doubt. 
He was noted for his hospitality, and determined that 
the President should not leave without partaking of it. 

As the dinner hour drew near and President Washing- 
ton came not, Hancock sent his Secretary to him with 
the statement that he was too ill to call upon his Excel- 
lency in person. 



JOHN HANCOCK. 87 

Washington determined tliat his high official position 
should be recognized, so he refused to go, but dined at 
his lodgings at the home of Mrs. Ingersoll. 

That evening Governor Hancock sent his Lieutenant 
and two of his council to express his regret that his ill- 
ness would not permit him to call on the President. 
Washington informed them that he would see the Gov- 
ernor only at his lodgings, and the next day Hancock 
called on the President and ended this tilt of official for- 
mality and etiquette. 

As years passed on Hancock assumed the appearance of 
advanced age, no doubt caused by ill health. One who 
knew him in 1782 says: 

"He had been repeatedly and severely afflicted with 
gout, probably owing in part to the custom of drinking 
punch — a common practice in high circles in those days. 
As recollected at that time, Hancock was nearly six feet 
in height and of thin person, stooping a little, and ap- 
parently enfeebled by disease. His manners were very 
gracious, of the old style, a dignified complaisance. His 
face had been very handsome. 

"Dress at this time was adopted quite as much to the 
ornamental as the useful. Gentlemen wore wigs when 
abroad, and commonly caps when at home. At this 
time, about noon, Hancock was dressed in a red velvet 
cap, within which was one of fine linen. The latter 
was turned up over the lower edge of the velvet one, 
two or three inches. He wore a blue damask gown 
lined with silk, a white satin embroidered waist coat, 
black satin small clothes, white silk stockings and red 



88 JOHN HANCOCK. 

morocco slippers. It was a general practice in genteel 
families to have a tankard of punch made in the morning 
and placed in a cooler when the season required it. At 
this visit, Hancock took from the cooler standing on the 
hearth a full tankard, and drank first himself, and then 
offered it to those present." 

Side lights into the social circles of great men, per- 
haps go as far toward an insight to their characters as 
anything. 

There has been left us an account of Governor Han- 
cock at a banquet at which fifty or sixty sat at the table. 
The Governor did not sit at the table himself, a custom 
which in any other would have been branded as selfish. 
Governor Hancock's social manners were peculiar, and 
tended to increase the criticism heaped upon him. The 
following is an account of the way in which he enter- 
tained his guests: 

"He ate at a little side table, and sat on a wheeled 
chair, in which he wheeled himself about to the general 
table to speak with his guests. This was because of his 
gout, of which he made a political as well as social ex- 
cuse for doing as he pleased. 

"On this occasion when the guests were in the height 
of an animated conversation, and just as the cloth was 
withdrawn, they were interrupted by a tremendous 
crash. A servant in removing a cutglass epergne, which 
formed the central ornament of the table, let it fall, and 
it was dashed into a thousand pieces. An awkward si- 
lence fell upon the company, who hardly knew how to 
treat the accident, when Hancock relieved their embar- 



JOHN HANCOCK. 89 

rassment by cheerfully exclaiming: 'James, break as 
many as you like, but don't make such a confounded 
noise about it!' 

"And under cover of the laugh this excited, the frag- 
ments were removed and the talk went on as if nothing 
had happened. This, evidently, was the presence of 
mind of true good breeding. 

"His apparel was sumptuously embroidered with gold, 
silver, lace and other decorations, fashionable among 
men of fortune of that period. He wore a scarlet coat 
with ruffles on his sleeves, which soon became the pre- 
vailing fashion." 

Governor Hancock seems to have been a sort of Beau 
Brummel of Massachusetts, who led and moulded the 
fashions of the commonwealth. There is an anecdote 
told of Dr. Nathan Jacques, the famous pedestrian of 
West Newbury, walking all the way from that place to 
Boston in one day, to procure cloth for a coat like that 
of John Hancock, and "returned on foot with it under 
his arm." 

John Hancock died October 8, 1793, almost fifty-six 
years of age. Though he was human, and possessed 
some of the traits in common with the time which he 
would have been better off without, we have in biogra- 
phy few greater political heroes. 

His wealth and position in politics, very naturally be- 
gat enemies, who have sought to present only the worst 
side of his character; yet to his efforts and courage we 
owe in part the prosperity and happiness of our great 
country. 



JOHN HANCOCK. 

[1737—1793.] 

By G. Mercer Adam.* 

OF the orator-patriots of the Revolutionary era, John 
Hancock, who Hved between the years 1737 and 1793, 
was one of the most prominent. His signature, as 
every schoolboy knows, was the first, as it is the most bold, 
of those ardent men, styled rebels, to be attached to the 
Declaration of Independence. He signed the immortal 
document at first alone, as President of the Continental Con- 
gress, and one of the most influential men of his time who 
took active part in the memorable annals of his fateful era. 
Born to wealth and influence, his support was early secured 
for American liberty, and his espousal of the popular side, 
in the conflict of the American Colonies with the mother- 
land, was a happy incident in the story of the time, and not 
without efifect on the fortunes of the pre-Revolutionary 
cause. Among the heralds of and actors in the struggle of 
the Colonies with the Crown, Hancock came prominently 
into note at the time when Grenville's Stamp Tax was im- 
posed upon the American people. Just before this he had 
heard and applauded James Otis's stirring speech against 
the obnoxious Writs of Assistance, which gave legal author- 
ity to custom-house ofiflcers to enter business premises, and 
even private dwellings, in search of smuggled goods. Han- 

*Hi8torian, Biographer, and Essayist, Antlior of a " Pr6cis of English His- 
tory," a "Continuation of Grecian History," etc., and for many years Editor of 
Self-Culture Magazine. — The Publishers. 



JOHN HANCOCK. 91 

cock was himself a suspect in this act of outlawry, and was 
charged with other evasions of the law in connection with 
his large shipping interests, which suffered from the burden- 
some taxation imposed by the Crown on the Colonies and 
their trade at this era. Against this tyrannous imposition 
of British taxation the young merchant-patriot took and 
maintained a hostile and unwavering attitude, which led to 
his election to the Provincial Legislature of Massachusetts, 
and his public encouragement of legal resistance to the im- 
position and enforcement of the British Acts so bitterly 
complained of in the Colonies, the immediate issue of which 
was the Boston Massacre of 1770. Though taking this po- 
sition against the arbitrary measures of the motherland, 
Hancock was at this time no brawling revolutionist : on the 
contrary, he was more than usually conservative, and de- \ 
precated strongly mob violence and all unconstitutional and i 
irritating methods of opposition to British injustice and 
tyranny. When the latter became so oppressive as not to 
be borne, he took a decided stand on the popular side, and 
was most influential in urging opposition to Britain, foresee- 
ing that only revolution w^as likely to effect what remon- 
strance had failed to accomplish. When the British author- 
ities called the King's troops to their aid in executing the 
obnoxious laws, Hancock naturally took firm ground in 
insisting on their recall, in spite of the efforts of the Crown's 
representatives in the Colony to placate and even to bribe 
him. Soon now all hope of conciliation passed, and in 
town-meeting Hancock joined his voice, with that of other 
patriots of the period, in impressing Governor Hutchinson 
with a sense of the gravity of the situation, and assuring him 



92 JOHN HANCOCK 

of what would certainly happen if he refused the urgent 
summons of the citizens to remove the troops and prevent 
bloodshed. The personal interest, as a great merchant and 
shipper, he had in the maintenance of peace was such that 
he honestly sought to restrain the arm of the law at this 
period in Boston ; but if the appeals for peace were to be 
set at naught and the temper of the people was to be defied, 
Hancock would throw his interests, great as they were, to 
the winds rather than see his country's liberties trampled 
upon and a great wrong done to the Colony. This was 
l)recisel)' what happened, and the popular cause, as it pro- 
gressed, gained in him a stout champion and a valiant and 
uncompromising defender 

Rut before proceeding with an account of his career, let 
us first see who John Hancock was, and under what cir- 
cumstances he came to be enrolled in the patriot band that 
was to stand staunchly for the maintenance of Colonial 
rights against the arbitrary acts of the Crown, put in force 
by the obsequious Grenville and Rockingham ministries. 
John Hancock came of an influential New England family, 
of commercial antecedents, his immediate fortune coming 
to him from a wealthy uncle, who took a deep interest in the 
future patriot, had him educated at Harvard, appointed him 
clerk in his counting-room, and in 1760 sent him on a busi- 
ness mission to England, where he not only had admission 
to good society in London, but was enabled to be present at 
the funeral obsequies of King George H and at the corona- 
tion of his successor, who was so soon to become a thorn in 
the flesh to the people*^tLthe American Colonies. Shortly 
after his return from England, death deprived young Han- 



JOHN HANCOCK. 93 

cock of his uncle-guardian and put him in possession of his 
handsome fortune, with the proprietory interests in his ships 
and trading vessels and other large business connections. 
The patriot youth, then early in his career, became an ob- 
ject of public attention ; and his sphere of action rapidly 
widened when he began to display those gifts as a speaker 
and orator for which he became noted, aided by the social 
influence he possessed as a man of large means, an hospit- 
able entertainer, and a munificent donor to the deserving 
philanthropies of his time. In many other respects besides 
his wealth he was admirably fitted for high public positions, 
for he spoke with ease and efifect, and was capable of presid- 
ing with distinction over deliberative bodies. He had, more- 
over, many graces of manner, was exceedingly lovable in 
disposition, and was attractive to all, especially to those who, 
like himself, espoused the popular cause and took a states- 
manlike view of the relations of the Colonies with the moth- 
erland. Ere long we find him looked up to in his elevated 
station as a patriot, formed by education and by nature to 
act a brilliant part in the then theatre of affairs, and inviting 
the regard as well as the respect of his fellow-citizens, who 
presently heaped honor upon him and made him the idol 
of the community. 

The unpopularity of the Crown and the Crown officers in 
the Colonies at this period was actively increasing, and this 
was specially manifested just then in public resistance to 
the imperious attitude of Britain, in the issue and enforce- 
ment of the Writs of Assistance and the oppressive Stamp 
Act, both of which struck at the roots of American liber- 
ties. The rigid execution of the Acts of Trade on the part 



94 JOHN H.W'COCK. 

of the English ministry, which particularly affected Han- 
cock's shipping and mercantile interests, together with Eng- 
lish schemes of control and taxation of the Colonies, and the 
garrisoning of English troops in Massachusetts, to be main- 
tained at the expense of the Colony, were objects that, in a 
vehemently patriotic degree, excited the young statesman's 
ire and bitter denunciation. As, moreover, they led to in- 
fractions of the law and to more or less illegal trade, Han- 
cock was the more angry at their imposition, even to the 
extent of implicating himself as a rebel in the eyes of the 
Crown officers, as well as an infractionist of the reprobated 
laws, so long as they were in force. From this more or less 
passive attitude of protest and defiance the Colonies pro- 
ceeded to angry and hostile excesses, and to collisions with 
the troops, in their coercive measures against the commun- 
ity, which precipitated events, such as the attack and sack- 
ing of Lt.-Governor Hutchinson's house and the destruction 
of the offices of the obnoxious Stamp distributors, the board- 
ing and burning of English vessels in port, the throwing 
overboard of the taxed tea in Boston harbor, and the collision 
with the English soldiery on the night of March 5, 1770, 
popularly styled "the Boston Massacre." In inflaming the 
heart of the people and rousing them to engage in these 
acts of reprisal and hostility, when toleration of the political 
situation had ceased to be a virtue, Hancock had had some 
share; and for this he was specially held responsible, since 
by this time, as we have indicated, he was a member of the 
Provincial Legislature, and a violent haranguer against Eng- 
lish oppression and the exercise of unconstitutional and arbi- 
trary power. The immediate result of these acts in the 



JOHN HANXOCK. 95 

New England capital and of the temper of the people now 
roused to active resistance, was a temporary reaction in 
England, incited at the same time by the English Commoner, 
Pitt's, urgent warning of the trouble certain to ensue in the 
Colonies if the unrestrained authority of the Crown was 
wantonly to be exercised over them. This was shown by 
the repeal of the Stamp Act, which was hailed with delight 
in the Colonies and eagerly rejoiced over by Hancock, to- 
gether with the Sons of Liberty and other patriots through- 
out Massachusetts. But the Colonial rejoicings were only 
temporary, for on the heels of the withdrawal of the hated 
measure came new oppression in the shape of the Depend- 
ency Act, declaring the Colonies to be subordinate still to 
the will and authority of the Crown and Parliament of 
Britain, and subject to the control and the exercise of their 
authority in the matter of taxation and the maintenance and 
support of English troops in America. This new and ir- 
ritating action on the part of the mother country' naturally 
increased the soreness of feeling in America, which was 
far from being allayed when a subsequent English adminis- 
tration imposed various small customs' duties on American 
imports, such as glass, paper, painters' colors, and tea. In 
retaliation, the Colonists especially determined not to use 
the latter article ; while, generally, the spirit of resistance 
took now a determined and refractory turn, expressed by 
the act, which occurred, as related, in Boston harbor, in 
boarding and destroying from the three ships at that port 
of 343 chests of taxed tea. The deadlock that ensued was 
a grave one, for, on the one hand, the king and his min- 
isters stubbornly insisted on England's right to derive some 



96 JOHN HANCOCK. 

Ijcnefil; from her Colonics ; while, on the other hand, the 
Colonists as stuhbornly held to the principle of no taxation 
without representation, and upheld the rights of their own 
Assemblies. In assuming this attitude, it ought to be said, 
that Massachusetts was not now the only Colony that pro- 
tested against English oppression and coercion. By this 
time, thanks to the appeals of the Adams cousins, John and 
Samuel, James Otis, and other patriots, Massachusetts had 
enlisted the cooperation of several of the sister Colonies, 
by means of a Committee of Correspondence, and some of 
them, such as New York and Virginia (the latter inspired 
by the eloquence of Patrick Henry) had responded, and 
actively taken part in resisting England's acts of intimida- 
tion and coercion, and thus paved the way for the later 
Revolutionary rising. In these defiances, the port of Bos- 
ton was particularly to feel the odium of British displeasure, 
for after the destruction of the cargoes of tea in her harbor 
all commerce with the New England capital was prohibited ; 
while her recalcitrant citizens were made liable to arrest for 
treason and subject to be transportated to England for trial. 
The city was also to be punished by having increased bodies 
of English troops quartered upon her, and the setting up in 
her midst of a terrorizing military government. The look- 
ed-for result followed, in street riotings and other acts of in- 
subordination and violence on the part of the Bostonians. 
together with collisions with the soldiery, and strained re- 
lations between the chief citizens and the local representa- 
tives of the Crown. The latter strained feeling was special- 
ly increased when the Assembly petitioned the Crown for 
the removal of the Lieutenant-Governor (Hutchinson), at 



JOHN HANCOCK. 97 

the same time bitterly resenting the accounts he had sent 
home of the attitude taken by the more prominent lovers 
of liberty in the Colony and deprecating his unrealized ef- 
forts to suppress the meetings of the Legislature. The 
breach widened when General Gage appeared on the scene 
to fulfill his duties as Provincial Governor, and in doing 
so resorted to coercive measures and other acts, legal and 
illegal ; meanwhile declaring Massachusetts in a state of re- 
bellion, and thus paralyzing the machinery of government 
in the Colony. Estrangement increased when, at the in- 
stitution of Samuel Adams, a Continental Congress was 
summoned, which should act as the mouthpiece of the vari- 
ous Colonies and manifest its sympathy with New England 
resistance. This Congress met at Philadelphia in 1774, and 
again* in 1775, and gave expression to the united grievances 
of the Colonies and unmistakably showed a hostile attitude 
to the Crown and a spirit of resentment, provoked by the 
many acts of aggression on the part of the British author- 
ities. Nor was the state of feehng improved when Massa- 
chusetts, at the meeting of the Provincial Congress at 
Salem, and subsequently at Concord, concluded to raise a 
military force, consisting of 12,000 militia, which should 
sepresent the popular cause and protect its members from 
arrest by General Gage. Of this Congress John Hancock 
was not only a member, but its president, and, with Samuel 
Adams, was one of the patriots whom Gage desired to get 
hold of and send to England for trial as a rebel and traitor. 
It was at this time when Hancock, by his acts as presiding 
officer of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, was 
marked out for punishment by General Gage, that the pa- 



98 JOHN HANCOCK. 

triot was informed at Lexington of the acting-governor's 
design to capture him and take possession of the military 
material which the Colonists had gathered and stored for 
the use of the Provincial forces in case of need. With that 
precaution which the circumstances warranted, a guard of 
minute-men had been detailed by the Committee of Safety 
to act as sentrymen over the house of the Rev. Jonas Clark, 
whose guests Hancock and Samuel Adams were during 
their stay in Lexington. Here, on the 19th of April (1775), 
after a visit in the village to his betrothed, Dorothy Quincy, 
of Fairfield, Conn., whom later in the year Hancock mar- 
ried, the Clark household was awakened by the horseman, 
Paul Revere, who had arrived during the night to apprise 
Hancock and Adams of their intended capture by the Eng- 
lish troops sent out by General Gage. The historic inci- 
dents now transpired, of the rousing of the Clark house- 
hold and their guests, and of the colloquy that ensued be- 
tween Hancock and Revere — a colloquy that ended by the 
retirement of Adams and Hancock, with the latter's lover, 
to Woburn, and the preparations of Captain Parker and his 
small force, of a hundred militiamen, to meet the English 
troops on the village green at Lexington. Now came the 
crisis in the affairs of the Colonies, for Parker and [lis 
men, when the troops came up, refused to disperse, and 
were in consequence fired upon by the British. This act 
set fire to the mine of the Colonial cause, followed as it was, 
not only by the skirmish that ensued at Lexington, but by 
the battle, a few months later, at Bunker Hill (June 17), 
where the American militia were repulsed in the fight, 
though at serious loss to the English. Marshal law had 



JOHN HANCOCK. 99 

meanwhile been proclaimed by Gage, though with it an 
offer of pardon was extended, to return to their allegiance 
to the Crown, to all in rebellion, save Hancock and Samuel 
Adams, whose offences were deemed too flagitious to en- 
title them to English clemency. Disregarding this evidence 
of the governor's implacability, these patriots continued in 
their adherance to the cause of Liberty, and presently put 
in appearance at Philadelphia at the Continental Congress, 
when Gage professed to be specially annoyed by the election 
of John Hancock as president of the body. The Congress, 
speedily engrossing itself in the preparations for the coming 
strife with the mother country, completed its provision for 
the raising and equipping of a Continental army by appoint- 
ing as commander-in-chief thereto General George Wash- 
ington of Virginia. Thus matters seriously began to shape 
themselves for the coming fray ; and, in taking part in these 
grim preliminaries of revolution, Hancock gave further and 
practical evidence of the patriot he was, and showed to 
what extent he was further willing to go in aiding the 
cause which he had so heartily and self-sacrificingly made 
his own. 

By this time, the cause Massachusetts had been fighting 
for against English intimidation and tyranny had been ac- 
tively joined in by the other New World Colonies, from 
New Hampshire to Georgia, the patriots seizing the reins of 
power in each Colony and driving the royal governors out 
of office. The revolutionary movement created union, and 
with union came Independence and the Declaration or asser- 
tion of the fact, attested by Hancock as president of the 
Continental Congress, in a signature so bold and explicit 

L.ofC. 



loo JOHN HANCOCK. 

that all who ran might read. The several Colonies had first 
assumed the dignity of independent states under their own 
Colonial legislatures, but cordially sending representatives 
to the two Continental Congresses, and looking to those 
bodies for the measures to be patriotically taken to resist 
English aggression and put the country in a state of effec- 
tive defence. Later on, when the several petitions and ad- 
dresses to the throne and people of Britain came to naught, 
they agreed, in concerted fashion, to clothe themselves with 
national powers, under a coherent and united government, 
and collectively to take the field against the common foe. 
The final step in the direction of independence of the Eng- 
lish Crown and the throwing over of English control was 
taken in May, 1776, when the Second Continental Con- 
gress declared, by vote of its members at Philadelphia, that 
"every kind of authority under the Crown of Great Britain 
should be totally suppressed.'' This was followed by reso- 
lutions, passed throughout the Colonies, by public meetings, 
conventions, and legislatures, in favor of independence, and 
by the formal and solemn adoption of the great charter 
penned by Jefferson, which at the same time set forth the 
grievances under which the Colonies suffered, together with 
the assertion of their rights and the grounds which justified 
separation. 

Meanwhile, the Colonies had had several collisions with 
English troops, and in spite of the failure of a military ex- 
pedition to Canada had been able, late in the year 1776, to 
win the victories of Princeton and Trenton, and, in the fol- 
lowing summer, to force Burgoyne to surrender his whole 
army at Saratoga. On the sea, the struggle was also car- 



JOHN HANCOCK. loi 

ried on with vigor; ami in spite of England's formidable 
navy which blockaded several of the chief seaports, the 
Colonies were able to thwart England's power by the rav- 
ages of privateers and by the irritating capture of British 
supplies at sea and the destruction of not a little of British 
commerce. On the field of strife, as well as on that of 
politics, Hancock was anxious to bear his part, and in 1778 
he saw service in Rhode Island in command of a portion of 
the Massachusetts militia. This was the period when France 
had made a treaty of alliance with the New World nation 
and had sent her fleet to American waters to aid America 
in her struggle with the mother country. This fleet, under 
Count D'Estaing, sought to aid the Continental forces in an 
attack upon Lord Howe's British squadron off the harbor 
of Newport, R. I. ; but the issue was unsuccessful, owing to 
a gale that had sprung up, and D'Estaing. against the pro- 
test of Hancock and other patriot commanders, set sail for 
Boston, leaving the American land forces to meet the Brit- 
ish in an engagement at Turkey Hill. The fight entailed 
severe loss on both the English and the American forces en- 
gaged. 

Hancock, who had resigned his seat in the Contmental 
Congress to take command in the Massachusetts militia, 
now returned to political life and took part in 1780 as a 
member of convention in formulating a constitution for the 
State of Massachusetts, and later on became its first gov- 
ernor. This office he held continuously until 1785, and with 
the interval between 1785 and 1787 until the close of his 
life. Meanwhile, the Revolutionary War had been fought 
to a finish, the English arms meeting its crowning disaster 



I02 JOHN HANCOCK. 

in 1 78 1 at Yorktown, \'a., where Lord Cornwallis, being 
surrounded in the peninsula by the forces under Washing- 
ton and Lafayette, was forced to capitulate with his army 
and bring the war to an inglorious close for the motherland. 
Two years afterwards, by the Peace of Versailles (1783), 
Britain recognized the independence of the United States, 
and the young nation, with new hope, set out on its benefi- 
cent, triumphal career. The era was at first fraught with 
danger, for the finances of the new confederation w^ere in 
bad shape, the currency was debased, and the national debt 
was grievously large. Difficulties also arose from the disban- 
donment of the army, and from the territorial claims of the 
only partially organized Western States ; while trouble came 
of the attenipt of some of the Northern States to deal thus 
early with the slavery question and the attempted issue of 
emancipation edicts. Nor were the foreign relations of the 
confederation without perplexity ; while commerce had to 
adjust itself to new conditions before setting out on its ca- 
reer of expansion. Divisions among the several States of 
the New Republic also showed their power in exciting dis- 
cussion over the provisions of the Federal Constitution, 
and ratification was a matter, for a time, not only of delay, 
but of bitter contention./ In Massachusetts, particularly, 
there were divergent opinions as to the nature of the com- 
pact as an instrument of government, and the discordant 
views of its public men, at a grave juncture, were such that 
the State's consent to its ratification was in doubt. At first, 
Adams and Hancock were among the dissidents ; but on 
their carrying certain amendments, which were incorporated 
into the Constitution, these fellow patriots withdrew their 



JOHN HANCOCK. 103 

opposition and finally succeeded in securing its adoption. 
This was one of the last acts John Hancock took public part 
in ; for, though only fifty years old at this period, his health 
was indifferent and his weakened frame began to show the 
advance of old age. For five years further, he however con- 
tinued to fill the high office of governor of his native State, 
dying ultimately at Braintree (Quincy), Mass., October 
8th, 1793, with the regret and personal regard of all. Deep 
and profound was the impression made on his time by this 
patriotic, pre-Revolutionary statesman, whose loyalty to his 
country and many sacrifices in the cause of Liberty and 
Independence have earned for him and his memory an hon- 
ored name. His career was not fearless, nor was his life 
altogether without blemish or blame. But he was sturdily 
honest and splendidly patriotic, and had no regret whatever 
when events in the relations of the Colonies with England 
menaced his interests, or when the role of a patriot com- 
promised him gravely with the British Crown or brought 
him into trouble with its local representatives in the Colony. 
Impelled by the benevolent instincts of his kindly nature, 
Hancock, who had no surviving children, left the bulk of 
his fortune to public charities. In the year before his death, 
his own university. Harvard, granted him the honorary de- 
gree of doctor of laws, an honor which had been paid him 
also by other eminent educational institutions. At his death, 
his own city, Boston, with which he had been so long and 
honorably associated, paid high honor to his remains and 
granted to its chief officer in the chair of the governor im- 
posing funeral obsequies. 



I04 ■ JOHN HANCOCK. 

THE BOSTON MASSACRE (1770). 

f Address of John Hancock, delivered in 1774, in the Old South Church, Boston.) 

]\Ien, Brethren, Fathers, and Fellow-Countrymen : The 
attentive gravity, the venerable appearance of this crowded 
audience; the dignity which I behold in the countenances of 
so many in this vast assembly ; the solemnity of the occasion 
on which we have met together, joined to a consideration of 
the part I am to take in the important business of this day, 
fill me with an awe hitherto unknown, and heighten the sense 
which I have ever had of my unworthiness to fill this desk. 
But, allured by the call of some of my respected fellow- 
citizens, with whose request it is always my greatest pleas- 
ure to comply, I almost forgot my want of ability to per- 
form what they required. In this situation, I find my only 
support in assuring myself that a generous people will not 
severely censure what they know was well intended, though 
its want of merit should prevent their being able to applaud 
it. And I pray that my sincere attachment to the interest 
of my country, and the hearty detestation of every design 
formed against her liberties, may be admitted as some apol- 
ogy for my appearance in this place. 

I have always, from my earliest youth, rejoiced in the fe- 
licity of my fellow-men ; and have ever considered it as the 
indispensable duty of every member of society to promote, 
as far as in him lies, the prosperity of every individual, but 
more especially of the community to which he belongs ; and 
also as a faithful subject of the State, to use his utmost en- 
deavors to detect, and having detected, strenuously to op- 
pose every traitorous plot which its enemies may devise for 
its destruction. Security to the persons and properties of 



JOHN HANCOCK. 105 

the governed is so obviously the design and end of civil 
government, that to attempt a logical proof of it, would be 
like burning tapers at noonday to assist the sun in enlighten- 
ing the world ; and it cannot be either virtuous or honorable 
to attempt to support a government of which this is not the 
great and principal basis ; and it is to the last degree vicious 
and infamous to attempt to support a government which 
manifestly tends to render the persons and properties of 
the governed insecure. Some boast of being friends to gov- 
ernment ; I am a friend to righteous government, to a gov- 
ernment founded upon the principles of reason and justice; 
but I glory in publicly avowing my eternal enmity to tyran- 
ny. Is the present system, which the British administra- 
tion have adopted for the government of the Colonies, a 
righteous government, or is it tyranny? Here suffer me 
to ask (and would to Heaven there could be an answer) 
what tenderness, what regard, respect, or consideration has 
Great Britain shown, in the late transactions of her minis- 
try, for the security of the persons or properties of the in- 
habitants of the Colonies? Or rather what have they omit- 
ted doing to destroy that security? They have declared 
that they have ever had, and of right ought ever to have, 
full power to make laws of sufficient validity to bind the 
Colonies in all cases whatever. They have exercised this 
pretended right by imposing a tax on us without our con- 
sent ; and lest we should show some reluctance at parting 
with our property, England's fleets and armies are sent to 
enforce their mad pretentions. The town of Boston, ever 
faithful to the British Crown, has been invested by a Brit- 
ish fleet : the troops of George HI. have crossed the wide 



io6 JOHN HANCOCK. 

Atlantic, not to engage an enemy, but to assist a band of 
traitors in trampling on the rights and liberties of his most 
loyal subjects in America — those rights and liberties which, 
as a father, he ought ever to regard, and as a King, he is 
bound, in honor, to defend from violation, even at the risk of 
his own life. 

Let not the history of the illustrious house of Brunswick 
inform posterity, that a King, descended from that glorious 
monarch, George II., once sent his British subjects to con- 
quer and enslave his subjects in America. But be perpetual 
infamy entailed upon that villian (Lord Bute) who dared 
to advise his master to such execrable measures ; for it was 
easy to foresee the consequences which so naturally follow- 
ed upon sending troops to America, to enforce obedience to 
acts of the British Parliament, which neither God nor man 
ever empowered them to make. It was reasonable to ex- 
pect that troops, who knew the errand they were sent upon, 
would treat the people whom they were to subjugate with 
a cruelty and haughtiness which too often buries the hon- 
orable character of a soldier in the disgraceful name of an 
unfeeling ruffian. The troops, upon their first arrival, took 
possession of our senate-house (Fanueil Hall) and pointed 
their cannon against the judgment-hall, and even continued 
them there whilst the supreme court of judicature for this 
province was actually sitting there to decide upon the lives 
and fortunes of the King's subjects. Our streets nightly 
resounded with the noise of riot and debauchery, our peace- 
ful citizens were hourly exposed to shameful insults, and 
often felt the effects of their violence and outrage. But this 
was not all : as though they thought it not enough to violate 



JOHN HANCOCK, 107 

our civil rights, they endeavored to deprive ns of the enjoy- 
ment of our religious privileges ; to vitiate our morals, and 
thereby render us worthy of destruction. Hence the rude 
din of arms which broke in upon your solemn devotions in 
your temples, on that day hallowed by Heaven, and set apart 
by God himself for His peculiar worship. Hence, impious 
oaths and blasphemies so often tortured your unaccustomed 
ears. Hence, all the arts which idleness and luxury could 
invent were used to betray our youth of one sex into ex- 
travagance and effeminacy, and of the other, to infamy and 
ruin, and did they not succeed but too well? Did not a rev- 
erence for religion sensibly decay? Did not our infants al- 
most learn to lisp out curses before they knew their horrid 
import? Did not our youth forget they were Americans, 
and regardless of the admonitions of the wise and aged 
servilely copy from their tyrants those vices which finally 
must overthrow the empire of Great Britain? And must I 
be compelled to acknowledge that even the noblest, fairest 
part of all the lower creation did not entirely escape the 
cursed snare? When virtue has once erected her throne in 
the female breast, it is upon so solid a basis that nothing is 
able to expel the heavenly inhabitant. But have there not 
been some, few indeed, I hope, whose youth and inexperi- 
ence have rendered them a prey to wretches whom, upon 
the least reflection, they would have despised and hated as 
foes to God and their country ? I fear there have been some 
such unhappy instances, or why have I seen an honest father 
clothed with shame ; or why a virtuous mother drowned in 
tears ? 



,o8 JOHN HANCOCK. 

But I forbear, and C(3nic reluctantly to that dismal night 
(March 5, 1770) when in such quick succession we felt the 
extremes of grief, astonishment, and rage ; when Heaven in 
anger, for a dreadful moment, suffered hell to take the 
reins ; when Satan with his chosen band opened the sluices 
of New England's blood, and sacrilegiously polluted our 
land with the dead bodies of her guiltless sons! Let this 
sad tale of death never be told without a tear; let not the 
heaving bosom cease to burn with manly indignation at the 
barbarous story, through the long tracts of future time: 
let every parent tell the shameful story to his listening chil- 
dren until tears of pity glisten in their eyes, and boiling 
passions shake their tender frames ; and whilst the anniver- 
sary of that ill-fated night is kept a jubilee in the grim 
courts of pandemonium, let all America join in one common 
prayer to Heaven, that the inhuman, unprovoked murders of 
the fifth of March, 1770, planned by Secretary Hillsborough 
and a knot of treacherous knaves in Boston, and executed 
by the cruel hand of Preston and his sanguinary coadjutors, 
may ever stand on history without a parallel. But what, 
my countrymen, withheld the ready arm of vengeance from 
executing instant justice on the vile assassins? Perhaps you 
feared promiscuous carnage might ensue, and that the in- 
nocent might share the fate of those who had performed 
the infernal deed? But were not all guilty? Were you 
not too tender of the lives of those who came to fix a yoke 
on your necks? But I must not too severely blame a fault 
which great souls only can commit. May that magnifi- 
cence of spirit which scorns the low pursuits of malice, may 
that generous compassion which often preserves from ruin, 



JOHN HANCOCK. 109 

even a guilty villain, forever actuate the noble bosoms of 
Americans! But let not the miscreant host vainly imagine 
that we feared their arms. No ; them we despised ; we dread 
nothing but slavery. Death is the creature of a poltroon's 
brains ; 'tis immortality to sacrifice ourselves for the salva- 
tion of our country. We fear not death. That gloomy 
night, the pale-faced moon, and the affrighted stars that 
hurried through the sky, can witness that we fear not death. 
Our hearts which, at the recollection, glow with rage that 
four revolving years have scarcely taught us to restrain, 
can witness that we fear not death ; and happy it is for those 
who dared to insult us, that their naked bodies are not 
now piled up, an everlasting monurrient to Massachusetts' 
bravery. But they retired, they fled, and in that flight they 
found their only safety. We then expected that the hand of 
public justice would soon inflict that punishment upon the 
murderers, which by the laws of God and man they had in- 
curred. But let the unbiased pen of the historian Robertson, 
or perhaps of some equally famed American, conduct this 
trial before the great tribunal of succeeding generations. 
And though the murderers may escape the just resentment of 
an outraged people ; though drowsy justice, intoxicated by 
the poisonous draught prepared for her cup still nods upon 
her rotten seat, yet be assured such complicated crimes will 
meet their due reward. Tell me, ye bloody butchers ! ye vil- 
lains high and low lye wretches who contrived, as well as you 
who executed the inhuman deed ! do you not feel the goads 
and stings of conscious guilt pierce through your savage 
bosoms? Though some of you may think yourselves ex- 
alted to a height that bids defiance to human justice; and 



no JOHN HANCOCK. 

others shroud yourselves beneath the mask of hypocrisy, 
and build your hopes of safety on the low arts of cunning, 
chicanery, and falsehood ; yet do you not sometimes feel the 
gnawings of that worm which never dies? Do not the in- 
jured shades of Maverick, Gray, Caldwell, Attucks, and 
Carr attend you in your solitary walks ; arrest you even in 
the midst of your debaucheries, and fill even your dreams 
with terror? But if the unappeased spirits of the dead 
should disturb not their murderers, yet surely even your ob- 
durate hearts must shrink, and your guilty blood must chill 
within your rigid veins, when you behold the miserable 
Monk, the wretched victim of your savage cruelty. Observe 
his tottering knees, which scarce sustain his wasted body ; 
look on his haggard eyes ; mark well the death-like paleness 
on his fallen cheek, and, tell me, does not the sight plant 
daggers in your souls? Unhappy Monk! Cut off, in the 
gay morn of manhood, from all the joys which sweeten life, 
doomed to drag on a pitiful existence, without even a hope 
to taste the pleasures of returning health ! Yet, Monk, thou 
livest not in vain ; thou livest a warning to thy country, 
which sympathizes with thee in thy sufferings ; thou livest 
an affecting, an alarming instance of the unbounded violence 
which lust of power, assisted by a standing army, can lead 
a traitor to commit. 

For us he bled and now languishes. The wounds, by 
which he is tortured to a lingering death, were aimed at our 
country! Surely the meek-eyed Charity can never behold 
such sufferings with indifference. Nor can her lenient hand 
forbear to pour oil and wine into these wounds, and to as- 
suage, at least, what it can never heal. 



JOHN HANCOCK. in 

Patriotism is ever united with humanity and compassion. 
This noble affection, which impels us to sacrifice everything 
dear, even life itself, to our country, involves in it a common 
sympathy and tenderness for every citizen, and must ever 
have a particular feeling for one who suffers in a public 
cause. Thoroughly persuaded of this, I need not add a 
word to engage your compassion and bounty toward a fel- 
low-citizen who, with long-protracted anguish, falls a vic- 
tim to the relentless rage of our common enemies. 

Ye dark, designing knaves, ye murderers, parricides ! how 
dare you tread upon the earth which has drank in the blood 
of slaughtered innocents, shed by your wicked hands ? How 
dare you breathe that air which wafted to the ear of Heaven 
the groans of those who fell a sacrifice to your accursed am- 
bition ? But if the laboring earth doth not expand her jaws ; 
if the air you breathe is not commissioned to be the minister 
of death ; yet, hear it and tremble ! The eye of Heaven pene- 
trates the darkest chambers of the soul, traces the leading 
clue through all the labyrinths which your industrious folly 
has devised ; and you, however you may have screened 
yourselves from human eyes, must be arraigned, must lift 
your hands, red with the blood of those whose death you 
have procured, at the tremendous bar of God ! 

But I gladly quit the gloomy theme of death, and leave 
you to improve the thought of that important day when our 
naked souls must stand before that Being from whom noth- 
ing can be hid. I would not dwell too long upon the horrid 
effects which have already followed from quartering regu- 
lar troops in this town. Let our misfortunes teach poster- 
ity to guard against such evils for the future. Standing 



112 JOHN HANCOCK. 

armies are sometimes (I would by no means say generally, 
much less universally) composed of persons who have ren- 
dered themselves unfit to live in civil society; who have no 
other motives of conduct than those which a desire of the 
present gratification of their passions suggests ; who have 
no property in any country ; men who have given up their 
own liberties, and envy those who enjoy liberty; who are 
equally indifferent to the glory of a George or a Louis ; who, 
for the addition of one penny a day to their wages, would 
desert from the Christian cross and fight under the crescent 
of the Turkish sultan. From such men as these, what has 
not a State to fear? With such as these, usurping Caesar 
passed the Rubicon ; with such as these, he humbled mighty 
Rome, and forced the mistress of the world to own a master 
in a traitor. These are the men whom sceptred robbers now 
employ to frustrate the designs of God, and render vain the 
bounties which his gracious hand pours indiscriminately 
upon his creatures. By these, the miserable slaves of Tur- 
key, Persia, and many other extensive countries are ren- 
dered truly wretched, though their air is salubrious and 
their soil luxuriously fertile. By these, France and Spain, 
though blessed by nature with all that administers to the 
convenience of life, have been reduced to that contemptible 
state in which they now appear; and by these, Britain, — 
but if I were possessed of the gift of prophecy, I dare not, 
except by divine command, unfold the leaves on which the 
destiny of that once powerful kingdom is inscribed. 

But since standing armies are so hurtful to a State, per- 
haps my countrymen may demand some substitute, some 
other means of rendering us secure against the incursions 



JOHN HANCOCK. ' 113 

of a foreign enemy. But can you be one moment at a loss? 
Will not a well-diseiplined militia afford you ample security 
against foreign foes? We want not courage; it is disci- 
pline alone in which we are exceeded by the most formid- 
able troops that ever trod the earth. Surely our hearts flut- 
ter no more at the sound of war than did those of the immor- 
tal band of Persia, the Macedonian phalanx, the invincible 
Roman legions, the Turkish janissaries, the goisd'anucs of 
France, or the well-known grenadiers of Britain. A well- 
disciplined militia is a safe, an honorable guard to a com- 
munity like this, whose inhabitants are by nature brave, and 
are laudably tenacious of that freedom in which they were 
born. From a well-regulated militia we have nothing to 
fear ; their interest is the same with that of the State. When 
a covmtry is invaded, the militia are ready to appear in its 
defense ; they march into the field with that fortitude which 
a consciousness of the justice of their cause inspires ; they 
do not jeopard their lives for a master who considers them 
only as the instruments of his ambition, and whom they re- 
gard only as the daily dispenser of the scanty pittance of 
bread and water. No! they fight for their houses, their 
lands, for their wives, their children ; for all who claim the 
-tenderest names and are held dearest in their hearts; they 
fight for their altars and their friends, for their liberty and 
for themselves, and for their God. And let it not offend 
if I say that no militia ever appeared in more flourishing 
condition than that of this province now doth ; and pardon 
me if I say, of this town in particular. I mean not to boast ; 
I would not excite envy, but manly emulation. We have 
all one common cause; let it, therefore, be our only con- 



114 JOHN HANCOCK. 

test, who shall most contribute to the security of the liberties 
of America. And may the same kind Providence which has 
watched over this country from her infant state still enable 
us to defeat our enemies. I cannot here forbear noticing 
the signal manner in which the designs of those who wish 
not well to us have been discovered. The dark deeds of a 
treacherous cabal have been brought to public view. You 
now know the serpents who, whilst cherished in your 
bosoms, were darting their envenomed stings into the vitals 
of the Constitution. But the representatives of the people 
have fixed a mark on these ungrateful monsters, which, 
though it may not make them so secure as Cain of old, yet 
renders them at least as infamous. Indeed, it would be af- 
frontive to the tutelar diety of this country even to despair 
of saving it from all the snares which human policy can lay. 
True it is, that the British ministry have annexed a salary 
to the office of the governor of this province, to be paid out 
of a revenue raised in America, without our consent. They 
have attempted to render our courts of justice the instru- 
ments of extending the authority of acts of the British Par- 
liament over this Colony, by making the judges dependent 
on the British administration for their support. But this 
people will never be enslaved with their eyes open. The 
moment they knew that the governor was not such a gov- 
ernor as the charter of the province points out, he lost his 
power of hurting them. They were alarmed ; they suspected 
him — have guarded against him, and he has found that a 
wise and a brave people, when they know their danger, are 
fruitful in expedients to escape it. 



JOHN HANCOCK. 115 

The courts of judicature, also, so far lost their dignity, by 
being supposed to be under an undue influence, that our rep- 
resentatives thought it absolutely necessary to resolve that 
they were bound to declare, that they would not receive any 
other salary besides that which the general court should 
grant them ; and if they did not make this declaration, that 
it would be the duty of the House to impeach them. 

Great expectations were also formed from the artful 
scheme of allowing the East India Company to export tea 
to America upon their own account. This certainly, had it 
succeeded, would have effected the purpose of the contrivers, 
and gratified the most sanguine wishes of our adversaries. 
We soon should have found our trade in the hands of for- 
eigners, and taxes imposed on everything we consumed ; 
nor would it have been strange, if, in a few years, a com- 
pany in London should have purchased an exclusive right of 
trading to America. But their plot was soon discovered. 
The people soon were aware of the poison which, with so 
much craft and subtility, had been concealed. Loss and dis- 
grace ensued ; and perhaps this long-concerted masterpiece 
of policy may issue in the total disuse of tea in this country, 
which will eventually be the saving of the lives and the es- 
tates of thousands. Yet, while we rejoice that the adversary 
has not hitherto prevailed against us, let us by no means put 
off the harness. Restless malice and disappointed ambition 
will still suggest new measures to our inveterate enemies. 
Therefore, let us also be ready to take the field whenever 
danger calls ; let us be united and strengthen the hands of 
each other by promoting a general union among us. Much 
has been done by the committees of correspondence, for this 



I 1 6 JOHN HANCOCK. 

and the other towns of this province, toward uniting the in- 
habitants ; let them still go on and prosper. Much has been 
done by the committees of correspondence for the Houses of 
Assembly, in this and our sister Colonies, for uniting the in- 
habitants of the whole continent, for the security of their 
common interest. May success ever attend their generous 
endeavors. But permit me here to suggest a general con- 
gress of deputies, from the several Houses of Assembly on 
the American continent, as the most efifectual method of es- 
tablishing such a union as the present posture of our affairs 
requires. At such a congress, a firm foundation may be 
laid for the security of our rights and liberties; a system 
may be formed for our common safety, by a strict adherence 
to which we shall be able to frustrate any attempt to over- 
throw our constitution ; restore peace and harmony to Amer- 
ica, and secure honor and wealth to Great Britain, even 
against the inclinations of her ministers, whose duty it is 
to study her welfare ; and we shall also free ourselves from 
those unmannerly pillagers who impudently tell us, that 
they are licensed by an act of the British Parliament to 
thrust their dirty hands into the pockets of every American. 
But I trust the happy time will come, when, with the besom 
of destruction, those noxious vermin will be swept forever 
from the streets of Boston. 

Surely you never will tamely suffer this country to be a 
den of thieves. Remember, my friends, from whom you 
sprang. Let not a meanness of spirit, unknown to those 
whom you boast of as your fathers, excite a thought to the 
dishonor of your mothers. I conjure you, by all that is 
dear, by all that is honorable, by all that is sacred, not only 



JOHN HANCOCK. 117 

that ye pray, but that ye act ; that, if necessary, ye fight, and 
even die, for the prosperity of our Jerusalem. Break in 
sunder, with noble disdain, the bonds with wdiich the Phil- 
istines have bound you. Suffer not yourselves to be be- 
trayed, by the soft arts of luxury and effeminacy, into the 
pit digged for your destruction. Despise the glare of wealth. 
That people who pay greater respect to a wealthy villain 
than to an honest, upright man in poverty almost deserve to 
be enslaved ; they plainly show that wealth, however it may 
be acquired, is, in their esteem, to be preferred to virtue. 

Rut I thank God that America abounds in men who are 
superior to all temptation, whom nothing can divert from a 
steady pursuit of the interest of their country, who are at 
once its ornament and its safeguard. And sure I am, I 
should not incur your displeasure, if I paid a respect, so 
justly due to their much honored characters, in this place. 
But when I name an Adams, such a numerous host of fel- 
low-patriots rush upon my mind that I fear it would take 
up too much of your time should I attempt to call over the 
illustrious roll. But your grateful hearts will point you to 
the men ; and their revered names, in all succeeding times, 
shall grace the annals of America. From them let us, my 
friends, take example ; from them let us catch the divine 
enthusiasm ; and feel, each for himself, the godlike pleasure 
of diffusing happiness on all around us ; of delivering the 
oppressed from the iron grasp of tyranny ; of changing the 
hoarse complaints and bitter moans of wretched slaves into 
those cheerful songs which freedom and contentment must 
inspire. There is a heartfelt satisfaction in reflecting on 
our exertions for the public weal, which all the sufferings 



ii8 JOHN HANCOCK. 

an enraged tyrant can inflict will never take away ; which 
the ingratitude and reproaches of those whom we have 
saved from ruin, cannot rob us of. The virtuous asserter of 
the rights of mankind merits a reward, which even a want 
of success in his endeavors to save his country, the heaviest 
misfortune which can befall a genuine patriot, cannot en- 
tirely prevent him from receiving. 

I have the most animating confidence that the present 
noble struggle for liberty will terminate gloriously for Amer- 
ica. And let us play the man for our God. and for the cities 
of our God ; whilst w^e are using the means in our power, 
let us humbly commit our righteous cause to the great Lord 
of the universe, who loveth righteousness and hateth in- 
iquity. And having secured the approbation of our hearts, 
by a faithful and unwearied discharge of our dutv to our 
country, let us joyfully leave our concerns in the hands of 
Him who raiseth up and pulleth down the empires and king- 
doms of the world as He pleases ; and with cheerful submis- 
sion to His sovereign will, devoutly say, "Although the fig- 
tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; 
the labor of the olive shall fail, and the field shall yield no 
meat ; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall 
be no herd in the stalls ; yet we will rejoice in the Lord, we 
will joy in the God of our salvation." 



JOHN HANCOCK. 119 

HANCOCK AS THE STRENUOUS MERCHANT. 

After the death of his uncle in 1764, Mr. Hancock im- 
mediately proceeded to push the large business already es- 
tablished in oil, whalebone, coal and potash. He also con- 
tinued to supply the British garrisons in Nova Scotia, which, 
in itself, was a contract of magnitude. In fact, the only 
real rivals of Mr. Hancock in New England, at this time, 
appear to be the Rotch family, different members of which 
settled at Nantucket and New Bedford and, despite Mr. 
Hancock's best efforts, insisted upon a goodly share of the 
oil trade which centered there. Shortly before the uncle's 
death, the Hancock firm thus write to their London agents, 
noting the departure of a rival schooner: "The schooner 
from Nantucket, sailing to your place with oyle was very 
unlucky, more especially as it fetched so great a price, as it 
may be the means of their continuing that method, beside 
keeping up the price of oyle here. Capt. Folger did all he 
could to prevent her sailing, but they were determined 
upon it." 

A little later, in fact only a month before Thomas Han- 
cock's death, the firm sent the following suggestive order 
to Messrs. Barnard and Harrison, then their London agents : 
"Please to send by the Boston Packett a covering for a Bed, 
to be had at Mr. Fisher's, the Eiderdown Warehouse in 
Litchfield street, Oxford market. Pray be very particular 
in the choice of a good one, as it is for our T. H.'s own use, 
in the Gout, about Nine or Ten Guineas' value. It is called 
an Eider Down Quilt or Covering. If the brig goes to New 
Castle pray order us from thence Ten Groce of best Quart 



I20 JOHN HANCOCK. 

Champagne Bottles for own use, to be well packed in Bas- 
ketts." 

A few weeks from the date of this order John Hancock's 
uncle (the T. H. mentioned) was attacked with apoplexy 
while attending a session of his Majesty's council, of which 
he was a member, and expired August i. A large share of 
his fortune of £70,000 went to John Hancock, placing him, 
for those days, in affluent circumstances. He immediately 
notified his agents in Great Britain and Nova Scotia of the 
fact and bid them keep a sharp lookout on the market, es- 
pecially warning Messrs. Barnard and Harrison about giv- 
ing away any of his plans to the rival, oil merchants in 
London. 

A subsequent letter throws so many side lights on the 
business ; on John Hancock, the insistent business man, who 
docs not intenid that his correspondents shall neglect his 
interests, and on the business vernacular of these days (espe- 
cially in the way of impersonating ships as the modern en- 
gineer does his engine) that it is here given : "Since my last 
I am favored with yours and Capts. Diney, Bruce and Mar- 
shall. The latter arrived yesterday. Bruce got here four 
days before Marshall. Yours by the Boston Packett. 

"Inclos'd Invo. & Bill of Lading of the Goods on board 
him ; but was greatly, disappointed in not having all the 
things wrote for, particularly the Lemons & oyl, which 
would come to a very good Markett. I beg you would at all 
times be careful to send all my goods at the first opp'y, as it 
makes a great odds in the sale. 

"You also neglected the Eiderdown Quilt & many other 
things wdiich if you do not send by Scott will be a great dis- 



JOHN HANCOCK. 12, 

appointment to me. I am also at a loss to account why my 
Hemp & Beer & many other things should be omitted in my 
own ship & others have the preference, which is certainly 
now the case, and I must insist upon it that in future none 
of my goods be turned aside for any others whatever, for 
the disappointment to me is greater than if even I was 
obliged to pay a double freight; but perhaps you may have 
reasons for this, but to me it appears pretty extraordinary. 

"The dispatch you gave to the ships is very agreeable. 
You may depend she will be immediately returned to you 
with a good Cargo of Oyl. 

"I am with perfect Esteem, 

"Gent'n Your Most Obed't Servant." 

But Hancock's greatest concern, as heretofore intimated, 
was to stir up his London agents on the "oyl market" and 
he never loses an opportunity to tell them of some other ship- 
per who has disposed of his cargo to better advantage than 
he. In one of his letters of this period he mentions that his 
friend John Rowe, who shipped some oil at the same time as 
his last lot, secured far better figures. Mr. Rowe was subse- 
quently a prominent patriot and co-worker with John Han- 
cock. It is stated that it was this John Rowe who was pro- 
posed as a candidate for the General Court and whom the 
astute Samuel Adams overlooked as he gazed toward the 
Hancock mansion with the suggestive words, "Is there not 
another John that may do better?" They were, however, 
both elected, although the more opulent John became the 
special protege of the Father of the Revolution. 

It should also be stated, in drawing this general picture of 
Jolin Hancock's widely extended business just prior to his 



122 JOHN HANCOCK. 

entrance into revolutionary politics, that he had coal yards 
and large general stores for the sale of the articles which he 
imported in his fleet of ships. For example he advertises, 
under date of December 25, 1764: "Store No. 4, at the east 
end of Feneuil Hall Market, a general assortment of English 
and India Goods. Also choice Newcastle coals and Irish 
Butter, cheap for Cash, 
r "Said Hancock desires those persons who are still indebted 
to the estate of the late Hon. Thomas Hancock, Esq., de- 
ceased, to be speedy in paying their respective balances to 
prevent trouble." 

John Rowe, the friend and co-patriot already mentioned, 
w'as also proprietor of a general store for the sale of his im- 
ported goods. One of his advertisements runs as follows : 
"Just imported and to be sold by John Rowe at his store, a 
few likely negro boys and two negro men, between 20 and 
30 years of age. Also New Castle Coals, Lisbon Salt, Fyal 
Wine, Quart bottles by the groce. Hemp, Russia and Ravens 
Duck, etc." 

Mr. Hancock does not appear to have dealt in slaves, 
although in one of his letters he thanks his London agents 
for their trouble in sending him a man servant. "The man 
appears to be a Sober man," he says, "and the articles very 
agreeable — particularly my Silk Cloths. A choice of my own 
could not have pleased me better. You omitted six pair 
black Silk Hose which would be glad you would send me." 

Mr. Hancock's greatly extended business soon became a 
source of apparent concern. The revenue laws passed by 
the Mother Country were already having their effects and 
several large failures occurred among the Boston merchants 



JOHN HANCOCK. 123 

in 1764 and 1765. There is little doubt but that William 
Rotch, the Quaker merchant prince of Nantucket, interfered 
with the profits of his oil trade and the two made an attempt 
to combine their forces and corner the market. But by the 
time they were about ready to form the combine the Stamp 
Act had passed and business was almost at a stand-still. 

HANCOCK AND THE STAMP ACT. 

Intermixed now with his complaints of the arrival of dam- 
aged lemons and bad home markets for salad oils and New- 
castle coals, are impatient remarks about the treatment of 
American merchants. "I hear/' he writes, "the Stamp Act 
is like to take place. It is very cruel. We were before much 
burthened. We shall not be able much longer to support 
trade and in the end Great Britain must feel the ill effects of 
it. I wonder the merchants and friends to America don't 
make some stir for us." 

As the evil import of the Stamp Act became more and 
more apparent, Mr. Hancock endeavors to use his London 
agents as messengers to convey to the British trade his sen- 
timents on the subject and the ever increasing bitterness of 
public opinion. In August, 1765, he writes as follows: "I 
refer you to the Newspapers for an account of the pro- 
ceed'gs here by which you will see the General Dissatisfac- 
tion here on account of the Stamp Act, which I pray may 
never be carried into Execution. It is a Cruel hardship upon 
us & unless we are Redressed we must be Ruin'd. Our 
Stamp Officer has resigned. I hope the same Spirit will 
prevail throughout the whole Continent. Do Exert your- 
selves for us and promote our Interest with the Body of 
Merchants. The fatal Effects of these Grievances you will 



124 JOHN HANCOCK. 

very Sensibly feel ; our Trade must decay & indeed already 
is very indifferent. I cant therefore but hope that we shall 
be considered, & that some will rise up to exert themselves 
for us. We are worth saving, but unless speedily reliev'd 
we shall be past remedy. Do think of us." 

It is worthy of note that John Hancock's ship "Liberty,"" 
which he had just built for the Carolina trade, but finally 
decided to load for London, should be the bearer of this mes- 
sage. [This was the same "Liberty" that three years later 
brought the Madeira wine upon which Hancock refused to 
pay duty and which proved to be the beginning of the real 
Revolution.] 

A month later (September 30, 1765) he notifies his agents 
that Capt. Hulme (the ship) has arrived "with the most 
disagreeable Commodity (Stamps) that were ever imported 
into this country and what if carry'd into Execution will 
entirely Stagnate Trade, for it is universally determined 
here never to submit to it, and the principal merchants here 
will by no means carry on Business under a Stamp. We are 
in the utmost Confusion here and shall be more so after the 
first of November & nothing but the repeal of the act will 
righten. The Consequence of its taking place here will be 
bad & attended with many troubles & I believe may say more 
fatal to you than us. For God's Sake use your Interest to 
relieve us. I dread the Event." 

Mr. Hancock had already been elected a selectman, suc- 
ceeding his deceased and lamented uncle, who had held that 
position for many years. While he was writing these letters 
of appeal and warning to his London correspondents he was 
also taking such a leading part in the town meetings at 



JOHN HANCOCK. 125 

Faneuil Hall as was bringing him into prominent notice. He 
was appointed one of a committee to bear instructions to the 
General Court or Assembly and upon the death of a repre- 
sentative (Oxenbridge Thatcher), at this time, he received 
several votes for the position. His older and more experi- 
enced friend, Samuel Adams, was, however, elected. 

As Hancock feared, indignant unrest gave place to vio- 
lence, at first chiefly directed against the Stamp Officer. In 
October he writes to London that he has finally dispatched a 
new brig "Harrison" from Nantucket. He conveys the 
cheerful assurance to his agents that if the Stamp Act be 
not repealed they "may bid Adieu to Remittances for the 
past Goods and Trade in future. Your debts camiot be Re- / 
cover'd here for we shall have no Courts of Justice after the 
1st Novr. & I now Tell you, and you will find it come to 
pass that the people of this Country will never Suffer them- / 

selves to be made slaves of by a Submission to that D d 

act." 

He goes on to say that if his two ships (Marshall and 
Scott) arrive before November i he will clear them out 
again, but, if after that date, he will haul them up rather 
than pay a stamp duty to get them out of port. "I would 
sooner subject myself to the hardest Labour for a main- 
tenance than carry on the Business I now do under so great 
a Burthen & I am determined as soon as I know that they 
are Resolv,'d to insist on this act to Sell my Stock in Trade 
& Shut up my Warehouse Doors. Thus much I told our 
Govr. the other day & is what I am absolutely Determined to 
abide by, without some very extraordy intervention indeed, 
wch is not likely. 



126 JOHN HANCOCK. 

"We are a people worth saveing & our trade so much to 
your advantage worth Keeping, that it merits the notice of 
those on yr side who have the Conduct of it; but to find 
nothing urg'd bv the merchts on your side in our favour 
Really is extraordinary. What I have mentioned seems at 
present to be the opinion of all here & indeed must unavoid- 
ably be the Case if they don't submit to this Cruel act, wxh 
I now tell you the whole Continent is so Rous'd that they 
will never suffer anv one to Distribute the Stamns — a Thou- 
sand Guineas, nay a much Larger sum, would be no Tempta- 
tion to me to be the first that should api)ly for a Stamp ; for 
such is the aversion of the people to the Stamps that I should 
be sure to Lose my property if not my Life. Trade must of 
course stagnate and indeed all kinds of Business and Navi- 
gation must cease unless some Expedient be thought on, 
well I Can't See can Take place so as to Remove the Diffi- 
culty. 

"Thus much I thought to mention to you to let you see 
some of the ill Consequences of this act, and they are what 
will greatly affect Great Britain in the End ; and Trade once 
lost is not easily Retriev'd. You will not mention my name 
particularly in these matters. I write thus much & pray you 
will use your Influence for us to Extricate us out of our 
present State." 

In this, as in other letters prior to the repeal of the act, 
Hancock notifies his agents that tliey need expect no orders 
for spring goods. He, in common with his fellow merchants, 
had agreed to this course of action. The stamps had come, 
but they were not distributed, and, in view of the public 
sentiment then prevailing, it would have been a very hardy 



JOHN HANCOCK. 127 

merchant indeed who would have offered to use them after 
Noveniher T. flancock voiced the common opinion of the 
patriots in his letters to London, when he pronounced the 
act an unconstitutional grievous hurden and which, as an 
Englishman entitled to the rights of the English constitu- 
tion, he refused to accept. He would sooner be a pauper 
than submit to injustice and be a slave. He did not fail to 
repeatedly remind his friends across the water that the crip- 
pling of American trade would also be a severe injury to 
England. 

It is probable that John Hancock accomplished more 
toward the actual repeal of the stamp act by this continual 
hammering away at the large London merchants through 
his Boston agents than if he had been able to compose such 
masterly papers as came from] Samuel Adams and were 
l)igeon-holed before they reached His Royal Highness or his 
ministers. 

After the Stamp Officer in Boston had taken an oath that 
he would never directly or indirectly attempt to perform the 
duties of his office and it had become evident that the Stamp 
Act would be inoperative, Hancock, in common with the 
other merchants, appears to have become more hopeful over 
the situation. Conditional orders for spring goods were 
dispatched to London — ^the sole condition for filling them 
being, of course, the repeal of the stamp act. 

Although that great event in colonial life occurred March 
18, 1766, news of the repeal was not received in Boston until 
April 30 and a copy of the act did not reach the city until 
the arrival of Hancock's brig, the "Harrison," on May 16. 



128 JOHN HANCOCK. 

ROYAL SENTIMENTS IN VERSE, 

Elsewhere is given a brief account of the pubhc celebra- 
tion on the common and the supposed healing of the dissen- 
sions between the royalists and the patriots — now considered 
one and inseparable. A magnificent pyramid or obelisk had 
been erected by the Sons of Liberty and upon its four sides 
the prevailing public sentiments had been engraved by Mr. 
Paul Revere. On two sides were impassioned invocations 
to the Goddess of Liberty, with a graceful reference to 
''Britain's guardian Pitt" and "the foes of Britain only are 
our foes ;" on the third side was a significant reference to 
"foul oppressiGn's transient reign," but the fourth, side pro- 
nounced the reunion complete in the following verse : 

''Our faith approv'd, our Liberty restor'd. 
Our hearts bend gratefully to our sov'r'gn Lord ; 
Hail, darling Monarch ! by this act endear'd, 
Our firm affections are thy best reward. 
She'd Britain's self against herself divide, 
And hostile armies frown on either side — 
Sh'd ho3ts rebellious, shake our Brunswick's throne, 
And as they dar'd thy parent, dare the son. 
To this asylum stretch thine happy wing. 
And we'll contend, who best shall love our King." 

DENIES TRYING TO CONTRACT FOR BRITISH TROOPS. 

While the town of Boston was in a great state of excite- 
ment over the coming of General Gage's troops and their 
quartering in Feneuil Hall, the charge was made by the Tory 
element that Hancock was endeavoring to secure the con- 
tract for supplying these unwelcome visitors with provisions. 
As he had for a number of years supplied the Nova Scotia 
garrisons, on the face of it the charge had certainly an air 



JOHN HANCOCK. 129 

of plausibility. But the following letter written to a Boston 
paper put a quietus to the slander : 

"I observe in your last paper a piece signed Veritas, 
writer of which says he had it from good authority that a 
letter under my hand was published in a coffee-house at New 
York, requesting His Excellency Gen. Gage that I might 
supply the troops then expected, and which have arrived in 
this town. If such a letter has been produced there, or any- 
where else, I declare it to be a forgery ; for I have never 
made application to any for the supply of said troops, nor did 
I ever desire any person to do it for me. The person who 
produced the letter could have no other design but to injure 
my reputation and abuse the gentlemen of New York. I 
therefore desire you would give this a place in your next, 
in which you will oblige 

Your Humble Servant, 

John Hancock. 
Boston, Nov. 12, 1768. 

Hancock's account of the tea maneuver. 

John Hancock's business-like account of the throwing of 
the tea into Boston harbor is as follows. He is writing to 
his London agents, Dec. 21, 1773: 

"We have been much agitated in consequence of the ar- 
rival of the Tea Ships by the East India Comp., and after 
every effort was made to induce the consignees to return it 
from whence it came. All proving ineffectual, in a very few 
Hours the whole of the Tea on board Bruce, Coffin and Hall 
was thrown into the salt water. The particulars I must 
refer you to Capt. Scott for; indeed, I am not acquainted 



,3© JOHN HANCOCK. 

with them myself, so as to give a Detail. Capt. Loring in 
a Brig with the remainder of the Tea is cast on shore at the 
back of Cape Codd. Philadelphia and York are Determined 
the Tea shall not land. I enclose you an extract of a letter 
I Reed from Phila., by which you will see the spirit of tliat 
people. No one circumstance could possibly have taken 
place more effectively to unite the Colonies than this ma- 
nouvre of the Tea. It is Universally Resented here & people 
of all ranks detest the measure." 

In explanation of the letter which Hancock had received 
from Philadelphia, it should be stated that Wm. Palfrey, his 
friend and confidential business agent, had been promptly 
despatched to New York and Philadelphia with the Tea 
news. The three ships which brought the tea into Boston 
harbor were owned principally by William Rotch, although 
it is believed that Mr. Hancock himself had an interest in at 
least two of them ; and it is characteristic of the earnestness 
of the man, that despite the fact that, from a worldly point 
of view, none of the Revolutionary patriots staked more or 
suffered more than he, none were more enthusiastic over 
such acts as the manouvre of the Tea, although they meant 
a further sacrifice of a business already well nigh ruined. 

A NEW PICTURE OF THE TEA MANEUVER. 

There have been many accounts of the historic act put on 
paper, but none which is more graphic than the homely nar- 
rative of John Andrews, one of Hancock's friends and an 
eye-witness. 

"The house (the Old South Meeting House) was so 
crowded," he says, "I could get no further than ye porch, 



JOHN HANCOCK. ,3, 

when I found the moderator was just declaring the meeting 
to be dissolv'd, which caused another general shout, out 
doors and in, and three cheers. What with that and the con- 
sequent noise of breaking up of the meeting, you'd thought 
that the inhabitants of the infernal regions had broke loose. 
For my part I went contentedly home and finish'd my tea, 
but was soon informed what was going forward; but still not 
crediting it without ocular demonstration, I went and was 
satisfied. 

"They mustered, I'm told, upon Fort Hill to the number 
of about two hundred and proceeded, two by two, to Griffin's 
wharf, where Hall, Bruce and Coffin lay, each with 114 
chests of the ill fated article on board ; the two fomier with 
only that article, but ye latter arriv'd at ye wharf only ye 
day before, was freighted with a large quantity of other 
goods, which they took the greatest care not to injure in the 
least ; and before nine o'clock in ye evening every chest from 
on board the three vessels was knocked to pieces and flung 
over ye sides. 

"They say the actors were Indians from Narragansett. 
Whether they were or not, to a transient observer they ap- 
pear'd as such, being clothed in Blankets with the heads muf- 
fled and copper color'd countenances, being each arm'd with 
a hatchet or axe and pair pistols ; nor was their dialect dif- 
ferent from what I conceived these genuises to speak, as 
their Jargon was unintellible to all but themselves. 

"Not the least insult was offered to any persons, save one 
Captain Conner, a letter of horses in this place, not many 
years since remov'd from dear Ireland, who had ript up the 
lining of his coat and waist coat under the arms, and watch- 



132 JOHN HANCOCK. 

iiig his opportunity had nearly fill'd 'em with tea, but being 
detected was handled pretty roughly. They not only stripp'd 
him of his clothes, but gave him a coat of mud, with a severe 
bruising into the bargain; and nothing but their utter aver- 
sion to make any disturbance prevented his being tar'd and 
feather'd." 

COLONEL HANCOCK AND HIS CADETS. 

When General Gage, the newly appointed Governor, ar- 
rived at Boston, May 19, 1774, Colonel Hancock and his 
company of Cadets were delegated to escort him to the State 
House. There, after he had been formally proclaimed Gov- 
ernor, a bountiful feast was spread. Then the General and 
Governor informed those assembled that he was but a ser- 
vant of the Crown and however unwelcome he or his mission 
the royal acts must be enforced. To all of which John Han- 
cock and his Cadets, and other patriots who were present, 
listened with respectful attention, and left to await develop- 
ments. 

Said developments were not long in coming — the pro- 
roguing of the General Court to Salem by Governor Gage 
and the calling of the Continental Congress at Philadelphia 
by the patriots. In August also the Governor notified the 
Board of Selectmen that "he had received from England the 
two Acts of Parliament lately passed in which was inserted 
a clause forbidding the calling of town-meetings without 
special license from the Governor." He further notified 
Colonel Hancock that he had no further occasion for his 
services as commander of the Cadets. Doubtless the Gover- 
nor saw the danger of allowing one who had become so 
prominent as John Hancock in civil affairs of a semi-revolu- 



JOHN HANCOCK. 133 

tionary nature to remain connected with a provincial military 
organization. 

The Cadets promptly disbanded and returned the standard 
which was a gift from His Excellency. They sent a warm 
message of regret to Colonel Hancock, who, in the course of 
his reply said : "I am ever ready to appear in a public sta- 
tion, when the honor or the interest of the community calls 
me ; but shall always prefer retirement in a private station to 
being a tool in the hand of power to oppress my countrv- 
men." 

AS AN ANXIOUS HTTSBAND AND FATHER. 

Hancock's first child, a daughter who died in early infancy, 
was named Lydia Henchman, after his favorite aimt, who 
accomplished so much for him in the winning of Dorothy 
Quincy. Their second child, born in 1778, was John George 
Washington Hancock. He, also, was drowned in boyhood 
while skating. A few days before the battle of Monmouth 
Mr. Hancock wrote a letter to his wife from Yorktown 
wishing her a favorable recovery from her late confinement, 
bidding her particularly to send news as to the exact state of 
little John and to have the nurse take the best care of him. 

It would seem that after nearly three years of married life 
Dorothy was as unsatisfactory a correspondent as ever, and, 
under the circumstances, the impatience, even severity, of the 
anxious husband and father is justifiable: 

"Although I wrote you Two Letters the Day before yes- 
terday, & this is my Seventh Letter, & not one word have I 
heard from you since your departure from Boston. I am as 
well as the peculiar scituation of this place will admit, but I 
can by no means in Justice to myself continue long under 



134 JOHN HANCOCK. 

such disagreeable Circumstances — I mean in point of Living 
— the mode is so very different from what I have been al- 
ways accustom'd to, that to continue it long would prejudice 
my health exceedingly. This moment the Post arriv'd, and 
to my very great Surprise & Disappointment not a single 
line from Boston. I am not much dispos'd to Resent, but it 
feels exceedingly hard to be slighted and neglect'd by those 
whom I have a degree of Right to expect different Conduct. 
I would have hir'd any one to have sent a few Lines just to 
let me know the state of your health, but must Endeavor not 
to be so Anxious & be as easy as some others seem to be. I 
will expect no letters nor write any, & then there will be no 
Disappointment. So much for that. To be serious, I shall 
write no more till I hear from you. This is agreeable to my 
former promise. It really is not kind, when you must be 
sensible that I must have been very anxious about you & the 
little one. Devote a little time to w^ite me. It will please me 
much to hear of you. I am sure you are dispos'd to oblige 
me, & I pray I may not be disappointed in my opinion of 
your Disposition." 

MASTER HOLBROOk's LAME FOOT AIDS HANCOCK. 

As president of the Second Provincial Congress in Feb- 
ruar}% 1775, John Hancock put the motion that "the secre- 
tary be directed to write Colonel Roberson desiring him to 
deliver the four brass field pieces and the two brass mortars 
now in his hands, the property of the Province, to the order 
of the Committee of Safety." Without putting the motion to 
any deliberative body Governor Gage had ordered his officers 
to get the same ordnance well in hand for the British troops. 



JOHN HANCOCK. i^^ 

When they went for the guns, however, they found only the 
carriages, the business parts having disappeared. 

There was no evidence of the guns having been taken 
through the main gateway of the building in which they 
were stored, and as the only other possible mode of exit was 
through the schoolhouse, with which said building was con- 
nected, the evidence pointed in that direction. To the school - 
house, therefore, the officers went but found nothing— only a 
roomful of demure rustic pupils and Master Holbrook with 
his lame leg placed for greater ease upon a large box. A 
thorough search of everything but the box revealed nothing. 
Master Holbrook's game foot had carried the day and John 
Hancock's motion was carried into effect. 

It was thus that the two cannon, the Hancock and the 
Adams, were used with goodly effect throughout the Revo- 
lution and subsequently by the Ancient and Honorable Ar- 
tillery of Boston. The Adams was finally burst in firing a 
patriotic salute. They are now peacefully planted on top of 
Bunker Hill Monument, accompanied by the following : 

ZEbelbancocft: 

SacrcO to Xibertfi. 

This is one of four cannon which constituted the whole train of Field Artil- 
lery possessed by the British Colonies of North America at the 
commencement of thewar on the 19th of April, 1775. 

^bls Cannon 

and its fellow, belonging to a number of citizens of Boston, were used in 

many engagements during the war. The other two, the 

property of the Government of Massachusetts, 

were taken by the enemy. 

MORE OF HANCOCKS LOVE AFFAIR. 

John Hancock's Aunt Lydia was a designing woman and 
one of her plans was to marry her dear sweet young friend, 



136 JOHN HANCOCK. 

Miss Dorothy Quincy, to her very favorite nephew, the 
president of the Provincial Congress and chairman of the 
Committee of Safety. She and Miss Quincy were frequent 
guests at the parsonage of Rev. Jonas Clark, at Lexington, 
and at the home of Thaddeus Burr, of Fairfield, Conn. An- 
other not infrequent guest at the latter place was Mr. Burr's 
talented and intensely fascinating young nephew Aaron. To 
meet the fair Miss Dorothy was to become interested in her 
and, as Propinquity is said to be the Mother of Love, to be 
thrown into close contact with her was to become far more 
than interested in her. But in this instance Aunt Lydia had 
appointed herself chairwoman of the Committee of Safety in 
the love alYairs of John Hancock. 

After having come to a preliminary understanding with 
Dolly at the Clark parsonage on the night preceding the 
battle of Lexington, Hancock, it will be remembered, in com- 
pany with Samuel Adams, evacuated that village. As the 
two traveled toward New York and Philadelphia they were 
joined by other friends and delegates until the company con- 
sisted of John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, 
Thomas Cushing, Silas Deane, Roger Sherman and Robert 
Treat Paine. Aunt Lydia, in the meantime, with her fair 
young charge, as welcome guests, was traveling toward the 
home of Thaddeus Burr. 

From New York, under date of May 7, Hancock writes to 
his dear Dolly, describing his arrival at King's Bridge, where 
he was joined by the delegates from Massachusetts and Con- 
necticut, a number of gentlemen from New York and a mili- 
tary escort, the carriage of her humble servant being "of 
course first in the Procession" which started for the city. 



JOHN HANCOCK. 137 

Here is a little touch of vanity from which Mr. Hancock, in 
common with other men who have really accomplished some- 
thing in the world, was not exempt, and it may be especially 
excusable under the circumstance that figuratively he was 
beneath the tender scrutinizing gaze of Dear Dolly. To her 
he also described how nearer the city the party was met by 
another military escort, more gentlemen in carriages and on 
horseback, "and many Thousand of Persons on Foot, the 
Roads fiU'd with people and the Greatest Cloud of Dust" he 
ever saw. Further, he tells Miss Dolly : "When I got 
within a mile of the City my carriage was stopt, and Persons 
appearing with proper Harnesses insisted upon Taking out 
my Horses and Dragging me into and through the City, a 
Circumstance I would not have had Taken place upon any 
consideration, not being fond of such Parade. 

'T Beg'd and Intreated that they would Suspend the De- 
sign and ask'd it as a favour, and the Matter Subsided, but 
when I got to the Entrance of the City and the Numbers of 
Spectators increas'd to perhaps Seven Thousand or more, 
they Declar'd they would have the Horses out and would 
Drag me themselves thro' the City. I Repeated my Request, 
and I was oblig'd to apply to the Leading Gentlemen in the 
procession to intercede with them not to Carry their Designs 
into Execution, as it was very disagreeable to me. They 
were at last prevail'd upon and I proceeded. I was much 
obliged to them for their good wishes and Opinion — in short 
no Person could possibly be more notic'd than myself. 

"After having Rode so fast and so many Miles you may 
well think I was much fatigu'd, but no sooner had I got into 
the Room of the House than we were visited by a great num- 



138 JOHN HANCOCK. 

ber of Gentlemen of the first character in the city, who Took 
up the Evening. About 10 o'clock I Sat down to Supper of 
Fried Oysters, etc., at 11 o'clock went to Capt. Sears's (the 
King Inn) and Lodg'd. Arose at 5 o'clock, went to the 
House first mention'd, Breakfasted, Dress'd and went to 
Meeting, where I heard a most excellent Sermon by Mr. 
Livingston, Return'd to the same House, a most Elegant 
Dinner provided. Went to Meeting, heard Dr. Rogers, a fine 
preacher. 

"To-morrow Morning propose to Cross the Ferry. We 
are to have a large Guard in several Boats and a Number of 
the City Gentlemen will attend us over. I can't think they 
will Dare attack us. The Grenadier Company of the City is 
to Continue under Arms during our stay here, and we have 
a Guard of them Night and Day at our Doors. This is a 
sad mortification for the Tories. Things look well here. 

'T Beg you will write me ; do acquaint me every Circum- 
stance Relative to that Dear Aunt of Mine ; write Lengthy 
and Often. My best respects to Mr. & Mrs. Burr. My poor 
Face and Eyes are in a most shocking scituation, burnt up 
and much swell'd and a little painfull. I don't know how to 
manage with it. 

"Is your Father out? As soon as you Know, do acquaint 
me, and send me the Letters, and I will then write him. 
Pray let me hear from you by every post. God Bless you 
my Dr Girl, and believe me most Sincerely. 

"Yours Most affectionately, 

"John Hancock."' 

Mr. Hancock continued to advance in public esteem and 
public station, but he did not rely upon all this to bring his 



JOHN HANCOCK. ,3^ 

suit to the practical conclusion of marriage. His Dolly was 
a beauty and had the feminine virtue of liking pretty things 
and knowing how to use them to the best advantage. John 
Hancock, with his characteristic enthusiasm, fell right into 
her way of thinking and doing. Still we read between the 
lines of this letter of June 10, while he was serving as presi- 
dent of the Continental Congress, that uneasiness of the 
lover who is not quite certain that his sweetheart is his be- 
yond a doubt : 

"My Dr. Dolly: I am almost prevail'd on to think that 
my letters to my Aunt and you are not read, for I cannot ob- 
tain a reply. I have ask'd million questions & not an answer 
to one. I beg'd you to let me Know what things my Aunt 
wanted & you, and many other matters I wanted to know, 
but not one word in answer. I Really take it extreme un- 
kind. Pray my Dr. use not so much Ceremony & Reserved- 
ness. Why can't you use freedom in writing?? Be not 
afraid of me. I want long Letters. 

"I am glad the little things I sent you were agreeable. 
Why did you not write me of the top of the Umbrella? 1 
am so sorry it was spoiled, but I will send you another by 
my Express, wch will go in a few days. How did my Aunt 
like her gown & do let me know if the Stockings suited her; 
she had better send a pattern shoe & stocking. I warrant I 
will suit her. 

"The inclosed letter for your Father you will read and 
seal & forward him. You will observe I mention in it your 
writing your sister Katy about a few necessaries for Katy 
Sewall. What you think Right, let her have & Roy James. 
This only between you and I Do write your father. I 



140 JOHN HANCOCK. 

should be glad to hear from him, & I Beg, my Dear Dolly, 
you will write me often & long letters. I will forgive the 
past if you will mend in future. Do ask my Aunt to make 
me up & send me a Watch String, & do you make up another 
& send me. I wear them out fast. I want some little thing 
of your doing. Remember me to all Friends with you as if 
nam'd. I am call'd upon & must obey. 

"I have sent you by Doer Church, in a paper Box Directed 
to you, the following things for your acceptance, & which I 
do insist you wear. If you do not, I shall think the Donor 
is the objection : 

2 pair white silk J stockings which I think 

4 pr. white thread | will fit you. 

4 pr. Black Satin / Shoes, the other 

1 pr. Black Calem Co-t Shall he went when done. 

1 very pretty light Hat. 

1 neat Airy Summer Cloak (I ask Doer. Church.) 

2 Caps. 
1 Fann. 

"I wish these may please you. I shall be gratified if they 
do. Pray write me. I will attend to all your Commands. 

"Adieu, my Dr. Girl, and believe me to be with great 
Esteem and Affection^ 

"Yours without Reserve, 

"John H.ancock." 

Ah, that there were more such worthy chaperons as Aunt 
Lydia to keep such worthy lovers as John Hancock close to 
their task of wooing such reserved and coy maidens as Dolly 
Ouincy ! Ah, that there were more Dolly Ouincys and 
Dolly Madisons, pretty, pure and demure, simple by nature 
but deep in their knowledge of earnest mankind ! Oh, yes, 
Dear DolK-, vou do well to use some Ceremonv and Re- 



JOHN HANCOCK. 14.1 

serveclness and not too much Freedom in your letter-writing 
to the young, able, popular, wealthy president of the Conti- 
nental Congress of America! T>eave something for eager 
anticipation ! 

JOHN ADAMS DESCRIBES MRS. HANCOCK. 

But by August the practical Hancock had so outgeneraled 
the charming Aaron Burr that Dolly Quincy became Mrs. 
Hancock, the wedding occurring at the residence of Mr. 
Thadeus Burr, at Fairfield. The young couple at once went 
to Philadelphia to reside. At first they resided at a hotel, 
but later, as befitting their condition, in a large house on the 
corner of Arch and Fourth streets, their home being the 
social headquarters for many of the great men of the coun- 
try. The head of the household, as president of the con- 
gress, was an accessible man of the world as well as a 
staunch patriot — a patriot who, in virtue of his position, un- 
flinchingly conveyed to Washington the congressional reso- 
lutions favoring an attack and bombardment of Boston, 
wherein centered the property and family pride of the mer 
chant. What manner of woman the young bride was has 
been well described by John Adams, the Braintree lawyer, 
who had been obliged to leave his wife with four small chil- 
dren in order to fulfill his duties as a delegate to the Phila- 
delphia gathering. He writes to her : 

"Two pair of colors belonging to the Seventh Regiment 
were brought here last night from Chambly and hung up m 
Mrs. Hancock's chamber with great splendor and elegance. 
That lady sends her compliments and good wishes. Among 
a hundred men, almost, at this house, she lives and behaves 
with modesty, decency, dignity and discretion, I assure you. 



142 JOHN HANCOCK. 

Her behavior is easy and genteel. She avoids talking' upon 
politics. In large and mixed companies she is totally silent, 
as a lady ought to be. But whether her eyes are so pene- 
trating, and her attention so quick to the words, looks, ges- 
tures, sentiments, etc.. of the company, as yours would be, 
saucy as you are this way, I won't say." 

THE SECOND HELMSM.W OF THE H.VXCOCK MANSION. 

"I have embarked on the sea of matrimony, and am now 
at the helm of the Hancock mansion !" 

The above is an exultant exclamation of Capt. James 
Scott, erstwhile master of the brig "Lydia" and her many 
years in John Hancock's employ ; the occasion, his marriage 
to the widow of the deceased patriot in the third year suc- 
ceeding his death. 

Captain Scott had been long trusted as one of HanccK'k's 
most valuable business assistants, and figured further as a 
dear family friend. As early as June. 1763. the faithful cap- 
tain is mentioned in connection with the mastership of the 
ship then building for the Lc>ndon trade, the "Boston 
Packett." His name frequently appears in the correspond- 
ence lately published from John Hancock's voluminous let- 
ter-book, usually during the later years, in connection with 
some delicate family commissioii which the master of the 
Hancock mansion wished faithfully attended to. 

In one of the letters, written in 1765, he notifies London 
of the surprisingly quick passage of the Lydia, which had 
reached port ahead of five of his ships which had sailed 
before her. "Our brig Lydia," adds Hancock, "is certainly 
a fine sailinfr vessel and verv Luckv." 



JOHN HANCOCK. 143 

It is very probable that good Capt. Scott also considered 
the brig "Lydia" his mascot, as without her he would per- 
chance never have sailed into the good graces of the widow. 
Among other valuable cargoes brought from London by 
Scott was the bell for the Brattle street church, in 1774. 
With the bell came also a quantity of powder ordered by 
Air. Hancock — religion and powder — God and dry powder — 
those are what won the Revolution. 

The last letters found in John Hancock's correspondence 
arc addressed to his Dear Scott, in November. 1783, as he 
was about to re-enter business in order to rebuild his shat- 
tered fortune. Extracts from them are illustrative both of 
his own character and the close relation which existed be- 
tween him and Captain Scott. 

"I have been favored with your letter, accompanied with 
an Hajuper of Porter & Two cheeses, for which I thank you 
very kindly. They were excellent. I should much sooner 
wrote you had not ill health & my public associations pre- 
vented, but, thank God, I am now much recruited. I am 
rebuilding my store upon the Dock which the Brittons 
burned to ashes when they were in possession of Boston. I 
shall compleat it early in the spring, when I purpose to enter 
the Commercial Line upon the same plan that I have pur- 
sued. 

"I have for ten years past de^'oted myself to the concern of 
the Public. I have not the vanity to think that I have been 
of ver}- extensive service in our late unhappy contest, but 
one thing* I can truly Boast. I sat out upon honest Princi- 
ples & strictly adhered to them to the close of the contest ; 
and this I defy malice itself to controvert. I have lost many 



144 JOHN HANCOCK. 

thousand sterlg., but, thank God, my country is saved, and, 
by the smiles of Heaven, I am a free & Independent man ; 
and now, my friend, I can pleasantly congratulate you on the 
return of Peace, which gives a countenance to retire from 
Public Life & enjoy the sweets of Calm Domestic Retire- 
ment & Pursue Business merely for my own amusement." 

The writer goes on to say that he is about to send on an 
expert accountant to assist Capt. Scott in the collection of old 
bills and the general straightening out of his London ac- 
counts. The former is also, with the revival of business, to 
be placed in command of another ship and to take an interest 
in it, if he can find one to his liking. He also encloses a 
memorandum as to some articles which he wishes purchased 
for the family use. In these matters the captain is to consult 
Mrs. Scott and others — especially as to the Post Chariot. 

"God bless you, my good friend," he concludes. "My re- 
gard to your worthy family, in which Mrs. Hancock joins 
me. I have a fine little boy. 

"Pray, what has become of that vmgrateful, ungentle- 
manly, base fellow of a William Bowes? There is no Balm 
in Gilead for him. I would not thus write of any one else, 
& I pray God, however, to forgive him. I wish him no ill 
in the other world. I shall have my Recompense for what 
he Rob'd me of, out of what he left here. I am 

"Your real friend, 

"J. H." 

The memo, mentioned in the above specifies : "A very neat 
& light Post Chaise & Chariot. Elegantly neat, not made 
expensive by external Tawdry ornaments. The coachman's 
seat to unship and ship, with a Pole & fills, so as occasion- 



JOHN HANCOCK. 145 

ally to have the servants on the seat, or to ride PostilHon. 
Capt. Scott will find inclosed Mr. Hancock's arms, which he 
would have neatly Introduced on the carriage, with the crest 
on the other part of the carriage & the motto subjoined. 
The ground paint work of the carriage to be stone yellow, 
that being the color all his carriages bear. 

"6 Doz. very best Pewter Plates, with their proportion of 
proper sizes, oval or long dishes for Saturday's Salt Fish. 
You know how, it used to be. My crest to be engraved in 
each Dish and Plate. 

"The furniture has stood from the finishing of the large 
Parlor to the present moment, but is now much worn & 
stands in need of a Recruit. At least Mr. Hancock's son will 
want it. He therefore Incloses you the dimensions of the 
Room, windows, etc., & requests Capt. Scott will consult 
with Mrs. Haley as to the kind of Furniture that is most 
fashionable. I would not. have it yellow, as my chamber 
over that room is furnished with that color. I think a silk 
& worsted furniture will be good enough. The window cur- 
tains to be made to draw up. The window cushions of the 
same, and twelve neat stuff back chairs to be covered with 
the same & a sophia of the same. I wish the room to be 
tolerably decent in its furniture, but not extravagantly so. I 
leave it with my friends to determine. 

"You have also inclosed the dimensions ot two Bed Cham- 
bers, for each of which I want Wilton carpets ; do let them 
be neat. The British Officers who possessed my house 
totally defaced & Ruined all my carpets. I must submit. I 
wish to have a handsome silver tea urn, whether wrought or 
unwrought. I beg the favor of Mrs. Haley's advice." 



,46 JOHN HANCOCK. 

Mrs. Haley was the wife of one of his London agents and 
"that ungrateful, ungentlemanly, base fellow of a William 
Bowes was a nephew of his, a hardware dealer, whom Mr. 
Hancock had recommended as trustworthy, and who, after 
abusing the friendship of his uncle, absconded largely in Mr. 
Hancock's debt. Capt. Scott was one of the few well ac- 
quainted with the details of this shameful abuse of trust and 
generosity, and to him, therefore, Mr. Hancock could ex- 
press himself without reserve. 

But little did John Hancock know, as he was thus laying 
bare his heart to his friend, and commissioning him with 
the refurnishing of the Hancock mansion and its chariot, 
that he was addressing its future helmsman, the second hus- 
band of Dolly Quincy. 

HANCOCK AND MASSACHUSETTS' ADOPTION OF THE FEDERAL 
CONSTITUTION. 

The author of "Familiar Letters on Public Characters," 
who was John Hancock's neighbor and knew him well, says 
that the Governor was mainly instrumental in causing the 
federal constitution to be adopted in Massachusetts. "He 
had been absent some days (from the convention called for 
that purpose) because of illness. On the 31st of January, 
1788, he resumed his place, and after remarking on the dif- 
ference of opinion which prevailed in the convention,, as he 
had seen from the papers, he had to propose that the consti- 
tution should be adopted; but that the adoption should be 
accompanied by certain amendments to be submitted to Con- 
gress and to the States. He expressed his belief that it 
would be safe to adopt the constitution under the expecta- 



JOHN HANCOCK. 147 

tion that the amendments would be ratified. The discussion 
then appears to have turned upon the probability of obtain- 
ing such ratification. It cannot be assumed, for certainty, 
that this measure of Hancock's secured the adoption ; but it 
is highly probable. 

"The convention may have been influenced by another cir- 
cumstance. About this time a great meeting of mechanics 
was held at the Green Dragon Tavern, situated in what is 
now/ a part of Union Street and westerly of the Baptist 
Meeting-house. The tavern and the street were thronged. 
At this meeting resolutions were passed, with unanimity and 
acclamation, in favor of the adoption. But notwithstanding 
Hancock's conciliatory proposal and this expression of public 
feeling, the constitution was adopted by the small majority 
of nineteen out of three hundred and fifty-five votes. 

"The adoption was celebrated in Boston by a memorable 
procession in which the various orders of mechanics dis- 
played appropriate banners. It was hailed with joy through- 
out the States. General Washington is well known to have 
expressed his heartfelt satisfaction that the important State 
of Massachusetts had exceeded to the union." 

It is very probable that Hancock, the Cavalier of Ameri- 
can Liberty, as he has been called — that Hancocl- and his 
crew, such as these thousands of sturdy mechanics, were the 
means of tipping the scales in favor of the adoption of the 
constitution. All honor then to the unknown as well as the 
known who proved such potent factors in this important 
work toward cementing the Union ! 



148 JOHN HANCOCK. 

JOHN Hancock's thanksgiving proclamations. 

Even the clergymen of Boston were more or less rebels, 
in 1774, especially as relates to doing anything suggested by 
Governor Gage, the representative of the British soldiery. 
They, in fact, refused point blank to read from their pulpits 
any Thanksgiving proclamation he might issue. 

Thereupon the first Provincial Congress, of which John 
Hancock was president, took the matter in hand. This 
action completely reversed the outlook, and the Boston min- 
isters and the Boston newspapers, as well as every other 
channel of publicity in the province of Massachusetts, put 
forth the following with a rush : 

"Massachusetts Bay — A proclamation for public 
Thanksgiving: From a consideration of the continuance of 
the Gospel among us and the smiles of Divine Providence 
upon us, with regard to the season of the year and the gen- 
eral health which has been enjoyed, and in particular from 
consideration of the Union which so remarkably prevails, not 
only in this Province but throughout the continent, at this 
alarming crisis, it is resolved as the sense of this congress 
that it is highly proper that a day of public Thanksgiving 
should be observed. * * ''' 

"That God may be pleased to continue to us the blessings 
we enjoy and remove the tokens of his displeasure by caus- 
ing harmony and union to be restored between Great Britain 
and these colonies, that we may rejoice in the smiles of our 
sovereign, and in possession of those privileges which have 
been transmitted to us, and have the hopeful prospect that 
they shall be handed down' entire to posterity under the 
Protestant succession of the illustrious house of Hanover. 



JOHN HANCOCK. 149 

"Done at Council Chamber in Cambridge this Twenty- 
second day of October, One Thousand Seven Hundred and 
Seventy- four. 

"John Hancock, President." 

The Third Provincial Congress issued the Thanksgiving 
proclamation for 1775, the usual reference to the King being 
superseded by God Save the People ! John Hancock was 
now the official head of the national congress, and his name 
next appears affixed to the proclamation of 1780, as the first 
governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In this 
paper first appeared the well-known Indian figure in the 
State coat-of-arms, the paper being "By His Excellency, 
John Hancock, Esquire, Governour and Commander-in- 
Chief in and over the Commonwealth of Massachusetts." 
Its conclusion was God Save the People of the United 
States ! and it was "given at the Council Chamber in Boston 
this eighth day of November, in the year of our Lord, one 
thousand seven hundred and eighty and in the Fifth Year of 
the Independence of the United States of America." 

Thus another item is added to the chapter of noteworthy 
first things with which John Hancock is identified in that he 
issued the pioneer Thanksgiving proclamations in behalf of 
the people of Massachusetts — first, of the colony, and then 
of the commonwealth. 

HOW HE helped THE TWO ADAMSES. 

"Hancock lived in the mansion inherited from his uncle on 
Beacon street, facing the Common. There was a chariot 
and six horses for state occasions, much fine furniture from 
over the sea, elegant clothes that the Puritans called 'gaudy 



J 50 JOHN HANCOCK. 

apparel,' andi at the dinners the wine flowed freely, and 
cards, dancing and music filled many a night. 

"The Puritan neighbors were shocked and held up their 
hands in horror to think that the son of a minister should 
so affront the staid and sober customs of his ancestors. 
Others still said, 'Why, that's what a rich man should do — 
spend his money, of course ; Hancock is the benefactor of his 
kind; just see how many people he employs!' " 

"The town was all agog, and Hancock was easily Boston's 
first citizen ; but in his time of prosperity he did not forget 
his old friends. He sent for them to come and make merry 
with him; and among the first in his good offices was John 
Adams, the rising young lawyer of Braintree. 

"John Adams had found clients scarce, and those he had, 
poor pay, but when he became the trusted legal adviser of 
John Hancock, things took a turn and prosperity came that 
way. The wines and cards and dinners hadn't much attrac- 
tion for him, but still there were no conscientious scruples 
in the way. He patted John Hancock on the back, assured 
him that he was the people, looked after his interests loyally, 
and extracted goodly fees for services performed. 

At the home of Adams at Braintree, Hancock had met a 
quiet, taciturm individual by the name of Samuel Adams. 
This man he had long known in a casual way, but had never 
really been able to make his acquaintance. He was fifteen 
years older than Hancock and by his quiet dignity and self- 
possession made quite an impression on the young man. So 
now that prosperity had smiled, Hancock invited him to his 
house; but the quiet man was an ascetic and neither played 
cards, drank wine, nor danced, and so declined with thanks 



JOHN HANCOCK. 151 

But not long after he requested a small loan from the 
merchant-prince, and asked it as though it were his right, 
and so he got it. His manner was in such opposition to the 
flatterers and those who crawled, and whined, and begged, 
that Hancock was pleased with the man. Samuel Adams 
had declined Hancock's social favors and yet, in asking for 
a loan, showed his friendliness." — Little Journeys to the 
Homes of American Statesmen. 

THE HANCOCK MONUMENT AND MANSION. 

It was not until 1896 that a suitable monument and 
memorial to John Hancock was erected at Granary Burying 
Ground by the State of Massachusetts. In the dedicatory 
services Governor Wolcott said: "It has long been a matter 
of comment and possibly of regret to the Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts that the grave of her ftrst governor, a man 
who played so large a part in the Revolutionary period, re- 
mained in the heart of the principal city of the Common- 
wealth unmarked by any enduring monument. This monu- 
ment will be one of those spots to which the feet of pilgrims 
will be directed. It will be one of the memories which 
those who visit us from other states or countries will bear 
away with them from historic Boston and historic Massa- 
chusetts, and as the hurrjing crowd passes by the sidewalk, 
I hope that it will speak eloquently for all years of his patri- 
otic and loyal service to the Commonwealth." 

The erection of the monument, late as it was, seemed in a 
way to make amends for the destruction of the historic old 
Hancock mansion, the last effort to save the house being 
made m 1863 m the midst of the conflict which was so much 
more fearful and sadder than the Revolution. 



152 JOHN HANCOCK. 

ANECDOTES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF HANCOCK, ETC. 

THE ENLISTMENT OF HANCOCK IN THE PATRIOT CAUSE. 

It was natural that the Boston patriots should wish to 
enlist this ardent and influential citizen, John Hancock, 
in the popular cause. 

The manner in which this end was attained is de- 
scribed in the following letter from John Adams to Mr. 
Tudor, author of the "Life of James Otis." 

"I was one day walking in the mall, and accidentally 
met Samuel Adams. In taking a few turns together, we 
came in full view of Mr. Hancock's house. 

"Mr. Adams, pointing to the stone building, said, 

"'This town has done a wise thing to day.' 

"What? 

"'They have made that young man's fortune their 
own. ' 

"His prophecy was literally fulfilled, for no man's 
property was ever more entirely devoted to the public. 

"The town had that day chosen Mr. Hancock into 
the legislature of the province. 

"The quivering anxiety of the public under the fear- 
ful looking-for of the vengeance of king, ministry, and 
parliament, compelled him to a constant attendance in 
the House; his mind was soon engrossed by public cares, 
alarms, and terrors; his business was left to subalterns, 
his private affairs neglected, and continued to be so to 
the end of his life." 

HANCOCK AND HIS CREW. 

In the parliamentary debate on the Irish discoutents 



JOHN HANCOCK. 153 

in 1779, Mr. Fox assailed one, Mr. Dundas, and said: 
"What was the consequence of the sanguinary meas- 
ures recommended in those bloody, inflammatory speech- 
es? 

"Though Boston was to be starved, though Hancock 




Cutter House, Roxbury, Mass. 
A Headquarters of American Officers during the Siege of Boston. 

and Adams were proscribed — yet, at the feet of these 
very men, the Parliament of Great Britain were obliged 
to kneel, to flatter, and to cringe; and as they had the 
cruelty at one time to denounce vengeance against those 
men, so they had the meanness afterwards to prostrate 
themselves before them, and implore their forgiveness. 



154 JOHN HANCOCK. 

"Was he who called the Americans ^Hancock and his 
crew^^ to reprehend any set of men for inflammatory 
speeches?" 

In the debate on the address to the king, in 1781, 
speaking of the American war, Mr. Fox also said: 

"They (the ministers) commenced war against Ameri- 
ca after that country had offered the fairest propositions 
and extended her arms to receive us into the closest con- 
nection. 

"They did this contrary to their own sentiments of 
what was right, but they were over-ruled by that high 
and secret authority, which they durst not disobey, and 
from which they derive their situations. 

"They were ordered to go on with the American war 
or quit their places. They preferred emolument to duty, 
and kept their ostensible power at the expense of their 
country. 

"To delude the parliament and the people, they then 
described the contest to be a mere squabble. 

"It was not America with whom we had to contend, 
it was with ^Hancock and his cre7V^ a handful of men 
who would march triumphantly from one end of the con- 
tinent to the other." 

Dr. E. L. Magoon says this was the language sound- 
ed in the House, and for similar language a learned mem- 
ber of it (Lord Loughborough) was exalted to the digni- 
ty of peer, and enrolled among the hereditary council of 
the realm. 

He was thus rewarded for no other merit, that he could 
discover, but that of vehemently abusing our fellow sub- 



JOHN HANCOCK. 155 

jects in America, and calling their opposition, the war of 
'''■Hancock a fid his crew.'''' 

ORATORY OF HANCOCK. 

The Greeks had a saying that every man lived as he 
spoke; and Quinctilian tells us that it used to be said of 
Caesar, that he always spoke with the same mind as that 
with which he conducted war. 

Hancock was naturally energetic, and in his happier 

inspirations he was very eloquent. Under his oratorical 

sway, his cotemporaries were sometimes greatly moved. 

"Their listening powers 
Were awed, and every thought in silence hung, 
And wondering expectation." 

HANCOCK'S ORATION ON THE BOSTON MASSACRE. 

"Let this sad tale of death never be told without a 
tear; let not the heaving bosom cease to burn with a 
manly indignation at the relation of it, through the long 
tracts of future time; let every parent tell the shameful 
story to his listening children till tears of pity glisten in 
their eyes, or boiling passion shakes their tender frames. 

"Dark and designing knaves, murderers, parricides! 
how dare you tread upon the hearth which has drunk 
the blood of slaughtered innocence, shed by your hands? 

"How dare you breathe that air which wafted to the 
ear of heaven the groans of those who fell a sacrifice to 
your accursed ambition? 

"But if the laboring earth does not expand her jaws — 
if the air you breathe is not comrnissioned to be the min- 
ister of death — yet, hear it, and tremble! 



156 JOHN HANCOCK. 

"The eye of heaven penetrates the secret chambers 
of the sonl; and you, though screened from human ob- 
servation, nuist be arraigned— must lift your hands, red 
with the blood of those whose death you have procured 
at the tremendous bar of God." 

ORATION IN BOSTON, MARCH 5, 1 774- 

"I have the most animating confidence, that the pres- 
ent noble struggle for liberty will terminate gloriously 
for America. 

"And let us play the man for our God, and for the 
cities of our God; while we are using the means in our 
power, let us humbly commit our righteous cause to the 
great Lord of the universe, who loveth righteousness and 
hateth iniquity. 

"And having secured the approbation of our hearts, 
by a faithful and unwearied discharge of our duty to our 
country, let us joyfully leave our concerns in the hands 
of Him who raiseth up and pulleth down the empires 
and kingdoms of the world." 

HANCOCK'S TAI.ENTS. 

John Adams said of Hancock: "Nor were his talents 
or attainments inconsiderable. They were far superior 
to many who have been much more celebrated. He had 
a great deal of political sagacity and insight into men. 
He was by no means a contemptible scholar or orator. 
Compared with Washington. Lincoln or Knox he was 
learned." 

HANCOCK'S WILLINGNESS TO SACRIFICE. 

Hancock's whole heart and soul were with the strug- 



JOHN HANCOCK. 157 

gling patriots. When the best methods of driving the 
British from Boston was under discussion at a patriotic 
club, he is reported to have said: 

"Burn Boston and make John Hancock a beggar, if 
the public good requires it." 

Later on, in the autumn of 1 7^6, Congress gave Wash- 
ington instructions to destroy Boston if it should be 
necessary in order to dislodge the enemy. 

Mr. Hancock then wrote to that officer, saying: 

"Although I am probably the largest property-owner 
in the city, I am anxious the thing should be done if it 
will benefit the cause." 

LITERARY HONORS. 

John Hancock received the degree of A. M. from Yale 
and Princeton in 1 769, and that of LL. D. from Brown 
in 1788, and from Harvard in 1792. 

THE CLARK HOUSE. 

"After making several drawings, I visited and made 
the sketch of 'Clark House.' (See page 64.) There I 
found a remarkably intelligent old lady, Mrs. Margaret 
Chandler, aged eighty-three years. She had been an 
occupant of the house, I believe, ever since the Revo- 
lution, and has a perfect recollection of the events of 
that period. 

"Her version of the escape of Hancock and Adams is 
a little different from the published accounts. She says 
that on the iSth of April, 1775, some British officers, 
who had been informed where these patriots were, came 
to Lexington, and inquired of a woman whom they met, 



158 JOHN HANCOCK. 

for 'Mr. Clark's house.' She pointed to the parsonage; 
but in a moment, suspecting their design, she called to 
them and inquired if it was Clark's tavern that they 
were in search of. 

"Uninformed whether it was a tavern or a parsonage 




The Common, Lexington, as it Looks To- Day 

where their intended victims were staying, and suppos- 
ing the former to be the most likely place, the officers 
replied: 

'"Yes, Clark's tavern.' 

"'Oh,' she said, 'Clark's tavern is in that direction,' 
pointing toward East Lexington. 



JOHN HANCOCK. 159 

"As soon as they had departed, the woman hastened 
to inform the patriots of their danger, and they immedi- 
ately arose and fled to Woburn. Dorothy Quincy, the 
intended wife of Hancock, who was at Mr. Clark's, ac- 
companied them in their flight." — Lossing. 

ABIJAH HARRINGTON. 

"I next called upon the venerable Abijah Harrington, 
who was living in the village. He was a lad of four- 
teen at the time of the engagement. Two of his brothers 
were among the minute men, but escaped unhurt. 

"Jonathan and Caleb Harrington, near relatives, 
were killed. The former was shot in front of his own 
house, while his wife stood at the window in an agony of 
alarm. (Harrington's house is shown in cut on page 71.) 
She saw her husband fall, and then start up, the blood 
gushing from his breast. He stretched out his arms to- 
ward her, and then fell again. Upon his hands and 
knees he crawled toward his dwelling, and expired just 
as his wife reached him. Caleb Harrington was shot 
while running from the meeting-house. 

"My informant saw almost the v/hole of the battle, 
having been sent by his mother to go near enough, and 
be safe, to obtain and convey to her information respect- 
ing her other sons, who were with the minute men. 

"His relation of the incidents of the morning was sub- 
stantially such as history has recorded. 

"He dwelt upon the subject with apparent delight, for 
his memory of the scenes of his early years, around 
which cluster so much of patriotism and glory, was clear 



i6o JOHN HANCOCK. 

and full. I would gladly have listened until twilight 
to the voice of such experience, but time was precious, 
and I hastened to East Lexington, to visit his cousin, 
Jonathan Harrington, an old man of ninety, who played 

the fife when the min- 
ute men were mar- 
shaled on the green up- 
on that memorable 
April morning. 

"He was splitting 
fire-wood in his yard 
with a vigorous hand 
when I rode up; and as 
he sat in his rocking- 
chair while I sketched 
his placid features, he 
appeared no older than 
a man of seventy. 

"His brother, aged 
eighty-eight, came in before my sketch was finished, 
and I could but gaze with wonder upon these strong old 
men, children of one mother, who were almost grown 
to manhood when the first battle of our Revolution oc- 
curred. 

"Frugality and temperance,co-operating with industry, 
a cheerful temper, and a good constitution, have length- 
ened their days, and made their protracted years hope- 
ful and happy. 

"The aged fifer apologized for the rough appearance of 
his signature, which he kindly wrote for me, and 




Jonathan Harrington, at 90 years of age. 



JOHN HANCOCK. ,6i 

charged the tremulous motion of his hand to the labor 
of his axe. 

"How tenaciously we cling even to the appearance of 
vigor, when the whole frame is tottering at its fall! 
Mr. Harrington opened the ball of the Revolution with 
the shrill war-notes of the fife, and then retired from the 
arena. 

"He was not a soldier in the war, nor has his life, 
passed in the quietude of rural pursuits, been distin- 
guished except by the glorious acts which constitute the 
sum of the achievements of a good citizen." — Benson J. 
Lossing^ '''' Harper' s Magazine^'''' 18^0. 

THE HANCOCK HOUSE. 

In the "Massachusetts Magazine," Vol. I, No. 7, for 
July, 1789, there is "A Description of the Seat of His 
Excellency, John Hancock, Esq. , Boston (Illustrated by 
a Plate, giving a View of it from the Hay-Market)." 
The print is very well executed for the time, by Samuel 
Hill, No. 50, Cornhill — and the account of the estate is 
very curious and interesting. It describes the house as 
"situated upon an elevated ground fronting the south, 
and commanding a most beautiful prospect. (See page 21.) 
The principal building is of hewn stone, finished not alto- 
gether in the modern style, nor yet in the ancient Gothic 
taste. It is raised about twelve feet above the street,the as- 
cent to which is through a neat flower garden bordered 
with small trees; but these do not impede the view of an 
elegant front, terminating in two lofty stories. The east 
wing forms a noble and spacious hall. The west wing 



i62 JOHN HANCOCK. 

is appropriated to domestic purposes. On the west of 
that is the coach-house, and adjoining are the stables 
and other offices; the whole embracing an extent of 220 
feet. Behind the mansion is a delightful garden, as- 
cending gradually to a charming hill in the rear. This 
spot is handsomely laid out, embellished with glacis, 
and adorned with a variety of excellent fruit trees. From 
the Summer House opens a capital prospect," etc. 

"The respected character who now enjoys this earthly 
paradise, inherited it from his worthy uncle, the Hon. 
Thomas Hancock, Esq. ; who selected the spot and com- 
pleted the building, evincing a superiority of judgment 

and taste In a word, if purity of air, extensive 

prospects, elegance and convenience united, are allowed 
to have charms, this seat is scarcely surpassed by any 
in the Union. Here the severe blasts of winter are 
checked," etc. 

INTERIOR OF THE HANCOCK HOUSE. 

"The interior of the house is quite in keeping with 
the promise of its exterior. The dimensions of the plan 
are fifty-six feet front by thirty-eight feet in depth. A 
nobly panelled hall, containing a broad staircase with 
carved and twisted balusters, divides the house in the 
centre, and extends completely through on both stories 
from front to rear. 

"On the landing, somewhat more than half-way up 
the staircase, is a circular headed window looking into 
the garden, and fitted with deep-panelled shutters, and 
with a broad and capacious window-seat, on which the 



JOHN HANCOCK. 163 

active merchant of 1740 doubtless often sat down to cool 
himself in the draught, after some particularly vexatious 
morning's work with poor Glin's 'Plumb Trees and 
Hollys.' On this landing, too, stood formerly a famous 
eight-day clock, which has now disappeared, no one 
knows whither. 

"On the right of the hall, as you enter, is the fine old 
drawing-room, seventeen by twenty-five feet, also elab- 
orately finished in moulded panels from floor to ceiling. 

"In this room the founder of the Hancock name, as a 
man of note, and a merchant of established consequence, 
must often have received the Shirleys, the Olivers, the 
Pownalls, and the Hutchinsons of King George's colon- 
ial court; and here, too, some years later, his stately 
nephew John dispensed his elegant hospitalities to that 
serene Virginian, Mr. Washington, the Commander-in- 
Chief of the Army of the Revolution, and to the ardent 
young French Marquis who accompanied him. 

"The room itself, hung with portraits from the honest, 
if not flattering hand of Smibert, and the more courtly 
and elegant pencil of Copley, still seems to bear witness 
in its very walls to the reality of such bygone scenes. 

"We enter the close front-gate from the sunny and 
bustling promenade of Beacon Street, pass up the worn 
and gray terrace of the steps, and in a moment more 
closes behind us the door that seems to shut us out from 
the whirl and turmoil and strife of the present, and, al- 
most mysteriously, to transport us to the gray shadows 
and the dignified silence of the past of American his- 
tory. 



164 JOHN HANCOCK. 

"Over the chimney-piece, in this room, hangs the por- 
trait of John Hancock, by Copley — masterly in drawing, 
and most characteristic in its expression. It was paint- 
ed apparently about ten or twelve years earlier than the 
larger portrait in Faneuil Hall — an excellent copy of 
which latter picture, but by another hand, occupies the 
centre of the wall at the end of the room opposite the 
windows. 

"The chamber overhead, too, has echoed, in days 
long gone by, to the footstep of many an illustrious 
guest. 

"Washington never slept here, though it is believed 
that he has several times been a temporary occupant of 
the room; but Lafayette often lodged in this apartment, 
while a visitor to John Hancock, during his earlier stay 
in America. 

"Here Lord Percy — the same 

'who, when a younger son, 
Fought for King George at Lexington, 
A Major of Dragoons' — 

made himself as comfortable as he might, while 'cooped 
up in Boston and panting for an airing,' through all the 
memorable siege of the town. 

"In was from the windows of this chamber, on the 
morning of the 5th of March, 1776, that the officers on 
the staff of Sir William Howe first beheld, through 
Thomas Hancock's old telescope, the intrenchments 
which had been thrown up the night before on the 
frozen ground of Dorchester Heights — works of such a 
character and location as. to satisfy them that thenceforth 



JOHN HANCOCK. 



165 




^^rthh^y^ ^^^^^^^^ J/^, 












jTti.i 



/^UoC&b<ri^ 







This plate shows the bold signature of John Hancoclc to the Declaration of 
Independence. 




i66 JOHN HANCOCK. 

'neither Hull nor Halifax could afford them worse 
shelter than Boston.' 

"And here, too, years after the advent of more peace- 
ful times, the stately old Governor, racked with gout, 
and 'swathed in flannel from head to foot,' departed this 
life on the night of the 8th of October, 1793. 

"As President of the Continental Congress of 1776, he 
left a name everywhere recognized as a household word 
among us; while his noble sign-manual to the document 
of gravest import in all our annals — that wonderful sig- 
nature, so bold, defiant, and decided in its every line and 
curv^e — has become, almost of itself, his passport to the 
remembrance and his warrant to the admiration of pos- 
terity. — Arthur Gilman^ '''•Atlantic Monthly ^^'' June ^ ^S6j. 

UNIVERSITIES AND FREEDOM. 

It is not often that education becomes subservient to 
the cause of tyranny. France, in three revolutions, 
poured forth her scholars to protect popular rights. 

Elevated institutions of learning have almost always 
arrayed themselves on the side of liberty. The Univer- 
sity of Oxford presents a melancholy exception, in con- 
nection with the era when the spirit of republicanism was 
extinguished for a time,in the blood of Sidney and Russell. 

In direct reference to the death of these patriots, while 
the block was yet reeking with their blood, that institu- 
tion, in solemn convocation, declared that the principles 
for which they died — that civil authority is derived from 
the people — that government is a mutual compact be- 
tween the sovereign and the subject — that the latter is 
discharged from his obligation if the former fail to per- 



JOHN HANCOCK. 167 

form his— that birthright gives no exchisive right to 
govern — were "damnable doctrines, impious principles, 
fitted to deprave the manners and corrupt the minds of 
men, promote seditions, overturn states, induce murder, 
and lead to atheism." 

But, when, in the Colonies of America, gathered and 
burst the tempest which threatened to "push from its 
moorings the sacred ark of the common safety, and to 
the gallant vessel, freighted with everything dear, upon 
the rocks, or lay it a sheer hulk upon the ocean," then 
did the graduates of our colleges appear in the front 
rank of heroes, powerful to "ride on the whirlwind and 
direct the storm." — Edward Everett. 

SONS OF LIBERTY. 

(Speech of Colonel Isaac Barre, February 6, 1775, 
House of Commons.) 

In the course of the debate in the British House of 
Commons, on the Stamp Act. February 6, 1775, Charles 
Townshend, after discussing the advantages which the 
American colonies had derived from the late war, asked 
the question: "And now will these American children, 
planted by our care, nourished up to strength and opu- 
lence by our indulgence, and protected by our arms, 
grudge to contribute their mite to relieve us from the 
heavy burden under which we lie ?" 

This called to his feet Colonel Isaac Barre, who had 
serv^ed in America with Wolfe, and who had a knowl- 
edge of the country and people which most members of 
Parliament lacked. 

'■'■th.Q.y planted by your care P'' exclaimed Barr^, 



4- 










i68 JOHN HANCOCK. 

"No; your oppressions planted tliem in America. 
They fled from your tyranny to a then uncultivated, un- 
hospitable country, where they exposed themselves to 

almost all the 
hardships t o 
which human 
nature is liable; 
a ad among otli- 
crs,to the cruel- 
lies of the sav- 
age foe, the 
most subtle, 
l^and, I will take 
- it upon me to 
say, the most 
fonnidable of 
any people upon the face of God's earth; and yet, actuated 
by principles of true English liberty, they met all hard- 
ships with pleasure, compared with those they suffered 
in their own country from the hands of those who 
should have been their friends. 

"They flourished up by your indulgence I 
"They grew by your neglect of them. As soon as 
you began to care about them, that care was exercised 
in sending persons to rule them in one department and 
another, who were, perhaps, the deputies of deputies to 
some members of this house, sent to spy out their liber- 
ties, to misrepresent their actions, and to prey upon 
them; men whose behavior on many occasions has caused 
the blood of those Sons of Liberty to recoil within 



The Mayflower, in which the Pilgrims fled to America 
to escape the tyranny of the English. 



JOHN HANCOCK. - 169 

them; men promoted to the highest seats of justice, 
some who, to my knowledge, were glad, by going to a 
foreign country, to escape being brought to the bar of 
justice in their own. 

'"'•They protected by your arms! 

"They have nobly taken up arms in your defense; 
have exerted a valor amidst their constant and laborious 
industry, for the defense of a country whose frontier was 
drenched in blood, while its interior parts yielded all its 
little savings to your emolument. And believe me — re- 
member I this day told you so— the same spirit of free- 
dom which actuated that people at first will accompany 
them still. 

"But prudence forbids me to explain myself further. 

"God knows I do not at this time speak from motives 
of party heat; what I deliver are the genuine sentiments 
of my heart. However superior to me in general knowl- 
edge and experience the respectable body of this house 
may be, yet I claim to know more of America than 
most of you, having seen and been conversant in that 
country, 

"This people, I believe, are as truly loyal as any sub- 
jects the kiug has; but the people are jealous of their 
liberties, and who will vindicate them, if ever they should 
be violated. But the subject is too delicate; I will say 
no more," 

Notes of Colonel Barre's speech were taken by Mr. Ingersoll, one 
of the agents for Connecticut, who sat in the Gallery. He sent home 
a report of it, which was published in the newspapers at New London, 
and soon the names of the "Sons of Liberty," which the eloquent de- 
fender of the resisting colonists had given to them, was on every lip. 
— G. Bancroft, "Hist, of the U, S." 



170 JOHN HANCOCK. 



STORY OF JOHN HANCOCK. 

FOR A SCHOOL OR CLUB PROGRAMME. 

Each numbered paragraph is to be given to a pupil or 
member to read, or to recite in a clear, distinct tone. 

If the school or club is small, each person may take 
three or four paragraphs, but should not be required to 
recite them in succession. 

1. The Story of John Hancock is that of American Independ- 
ence, "or more accurately, the history of the final achievement of 
separation from Great Britain;" for a distinctive American life had 
been begun long before Hancock was born. 

2. "America," says Dr. John Henry Barrows, "had been waiting 
a hundred years for her crown and scepter. Her history runs back to 
the English Commonwealth, to Oliver Cromwell, and Sir Harry Vane, 
to John Pym, John Eliot, John Hampden and John Milton." 

3. "The rash hand of John Endicott struck the red cross from 
the banner of England and uplifted her own flag. When news 
came of danger to her charter, Massachusetts fortified her castle, and 
fasted and prayed." 

4. Another John, descended from a direct and splendid ances- 
try of Johns, was to help carry on the grand work of these heroes 
who had preceded him, and borne his christian name. 

5. John Hancock, the grandfather of our hero, was born in Cam- 
bridge, Mass., in 1671. He was graduated from Harvard College in 
i68q, and became a distinguished minister of the Congregational 
Church at Lexington, Mass. 

6. His second son, John Hancock, the father of the subject of 
this sketch, was born at Lexington, Mass., in 1703. He was gradua- 
ted from Harvard in 171Q, and was ordained to the ministry of the 
Congregational Church in 1726. 

7. He was a man possessed of more than ordinary talents, and 
was noted for diligence, prudence and piety. 

8. John Hancock, our American statesman, was born in Quincy, 
Mass., January 12, 1737, fifteen years after the birth of Samuel Adams 
and five years after that of Washington. 



JOHN HANCOCK. 171 

g. He attended the Boston common schools, and proved himself 
a bright, industrious youth, and a diligent and obedient scholar. 

10. He was also a pupil of the Boston Latin School, where he 
was so proficient that he was prepared to enter Harvard College at 
the age of thirteen years. He was graduated at that institution in 
1754. 

11. Thus John the grandfather was graduated at 18, John the 
father at 16, and the the third John Hancock at 17 years of age. 

12. John Hancock's father died at Quincy in May, 1744, when 
the boy was barely seven years old. 

13. On the death of his father John Hancock was adopted by 
his uncle, Thomas Hancock, who was one of the most successful 
tnerchants of his day. 

14. He spent several years in the country home of his uncle, 
and then in the year 1760 visited England on business for this rela- 
tive. 

15. He was present at the funeral of George H, and also at the 
coronation of his successor, George HI, a monarch against whom he 
was destined to wage with his compatriots a protracted and success- 
ful war. 

16. When twenty-seven years of age he returned to his native 
land. His uncle, who had built the stone house on Beacon Hill, 
which, when erected, was the finest house in the city, suddenly died 
of apoplexy, Aug. i, 1764. 

17. Having no children this benefactor left most of his large for- 
tune of a million of dollars to his nephew John, who thus became the 
richest man, perhaps, in Boston. 

18. This uncle, Thomas Hancock, made a bequest of $5,000 to 
Harvard College, for a Professorship of Hebrew and Oriental Lan- 
guages. This was considered a munificent educational gift for that 
period. 

ig. John Hancock was a handsome man, as his portrait shows. 
He had a sonorous voice, was very attractive in appearance, graceful 
and engaging in manner, and very fond of social pleasures. 

20. He loved to extend a lavish hospitality, and conducted his 
household upon an elaborate and ostentatious plan. 

21. He dressed richly in the gaily colored garb of the period, 
and rode out in a splendid coach drawn by six handsome bays, at- 
tended by servants in showy livery. 

22. Edward Everett said of him, "Hancock would have been the 
spoiled child of Fortune, had he not been the chosen instrument of 
Providence." 

23. But while thus fond of show and ceremony, "he was neither 
giddy, arrogant nor profligate." He. continued his course of regular- 
ity, industry and moderation. 



172 JOHN HANCOCK. 

24. "Great numbers of people received employment at his 
hands, and in all his commercial transactions, he exhibited that fair 
and liberal character which commonly distinguishes the extensive 
and affluent American merchant." 

25. Samuel Adams was chiefly instrumental in winning John 
Hancock over to the patriot side, although the exact details are not 
known. 

26. Mr. Hancock took a prominent part in the public measures 
of the times, and for several years was Selectman of the town of 
Boston. 

27. He earnestly opposed the Stamp Act as violative of the 
rights of the colonies. He gave to Samuel Adams and his fellow pa- 
triots his hearty co-operation, and assisted the colonial cause with his 
wealth as well as by his services. 

28. He was quite in contrast with his Puritanical friend, Samuel 
Adams, who would have abolished the theatre and dancing from 
Boston if it had been possible. Hancock was more of a Cavalier 
than Puritan, being fond of music, rich dinners, gay society and the 
like. 

29. There was some trouble between the officers of Harvard 
College and himself. He was short in his accounts, but in the end 
made an honorable settlement. 

30. In 1766, the year of the repeal of the Stamp Act, he was 
elected to the Legislature as a Representative from Boston, along 
with James Otis, Thomas Cushing and Samuel Adams, "where," says 
Eliot, "he blazed a whig of the first magnitude." 

31. When Hancock was chosen, Adams said, "Boston has done 
a wise thing this day; she has made the fortune of that young man 
her own." 

32. He held the position of Representative until the breaking 
out of the Revolutionary war. 

33. The value of John Hancock's services to the patriots at this 
time cannot be overestimated. 

34. He was one of the most popular and influential citizens of 
Boston, and his name was sure to carry weight with it in any cause he 
might espouse. 

35. The king's officers sought to bribe him with promises of of- 
fice, but utterly failed in their purpose. 

36. It gave the people great confidence to see Hancock risk his 
great wealth and reputation in the struggle against the king and Par- 
liament. 

37. His loyalty to his country's cause was deep and true, and he 
was justly regarded as one of the most trustworthy leaders of the pa- 
triot party in Boston, 



JOHN HANCO(^. 173 

38. "He did not possess the far-seeing wisdom of Samuel Ad- 
ams, and to the last hoped that an accommodation might be had 
with the mother country." 

39. "He deprecated what he regarded as the rashness of Sam- 
uel Adams in forcing the controversy to a definite issue. But when 
the crisis came, he was as much determined as Adams himself to sus- 
tain with his life and fortune the cause of freedom." 

40. He was classed by the Royalist authorities of the Province 
with Samuel Adams as one of the most dangerous and resolute of the 
patriot leaders. 

41. The charge of smuggling goods into the colonies to avoid 
taxation, has been laid to Hancock, but even if he did smuggle 
goods it was only to resist the obnoxious laws, which the colonists 
had no part in making, and not an act of outlawry for gain. 

42. Hancock was chosen captain of the Boston Cadets, a volun- 
teer company composed of the eh'/e of the young men of the city. 

43. In the spring of 1768 he refused to order them on escort du- 
ty at the general election, to show his disapprobation of the methods 
of the crown. 

44. With Samuel Adams, he openly and repeatedly denounced 
the Revenue Acts which increased the hatred with which the Royal 
officials regarded him. 

45. The Commissioner of Customs, in order to annoy Mr. Han- 
cock, accused him of having made a false entry of the cargo of his 
sloop, named "Liberty.'' 

46. This sloop was seized June 10, 1768, and towed away under 
the guns of the British man of war "Ronntey." 

47. The seizure caused a riot, in which the royal commissioners 
barely escaped with their lives. 

48. This affair was made the pretext for bringing British troops 
into Boston. 

4g. Hancock, Samuel Adams and the other patriot leaders earn- 
estly protested against their presence, and advised the people not to 
provide quarters for them as required by the Act of Parliament. 

50. With the arrival of the troops, the trouble commenced. 

51. Hancock, and Malcolm, the master of the sloop, were ar- 
rested through malice by the Commissioners of Customs on charges 
which could not be proved. The prosecution was accordingly ended 
in a miserable failure. 

52. This brought on the "Boston Massacre," on March 5, 1770, in 
which five persons were killed by the soldiers. Among them was a 
gigantic Indian or mulatto, named Attucks. It ultimately led up to 
Lexington, Bunker Hill and the Revolution. 

53. Hancock, Samuel Adams, with others, were members of the 



174 JOHN HANCOCK. 

committee to demand from Governor Hutchinson to removal of the 
troops. 

54. Hancock desired Samuel Adams to be the spokesman on 
this historical occasion, when the intrepid Puritan gave his famous 
ultimatum, "Both regiments or none T 

55. Mr. Hancock gave the oration at the funeral of the slain in 
the Boston Massacre, "which was so glowing and fearless in its rep- 
robation of the conduct of the soldiers, as greatly to offend the Gov- 
ernor." 

56. He declined to serve on the Boston Committee of Corres- 
pondence, which was established by the efforts of Samuel Adams. 

57. "He regarded that measure too bold and revolutionary, be- 
ing averse to such extreme steps so long as a chance of settlement 
remained." 

58. Subsequently, however, he took an active part in the pro- 
ceedings of the committee, which resulted in favorable responses 
from the colonies. 

5q. In 1773 he was a prime mover in resistance to the introduc- 
tion of taxed tea. 

60. He was moderator of the town meeting held at Faneuil Hall 
on the fifth of November in that year to concert measures for such 
resistance. 

61. When the "Dartmouth" arrived with its cargo on Sunday, No- 
vember 28th, it was determined the next day that the tea should be 
sent back to England without being landed. 

62. When it was ordered by the largest concourse that ever as- 
sembled in Boston, at the old South, that a watch should be set over 
the ship during the night, Hancock, who had taken a prominent part 
in the meeting, volunteered his services for the occasion. 

63. He said the next day, "I should be willing to spend my for- 
tune, and life itself, in so good a cause." 

64. On the i6th of December, the day of the great "Tea Party," 
he cordially united with Samuel Adams in helping destroy the con- 
tents of the vessels. 

65. Perhaps nothing surprised Governor Hutchinson more than 
this action of John Hancock. He thought that the great wealth of the 
rich and luxurious Bostonian would prevent him from taking such a 
course. 

66. In 1774 Hancock was elected with Samuel Adams a mem- 
ber of the Provincial Congress, which was first held at Salem, and 
then was adjourned to Concord, and was chosen its President. 

67. Towards the close of 1774 he was elected a delegate to the 
Continental Congress, which was to meet in Philadelphia May, 1775. 

68. On April 19, 1775, Hancock was at Lexington with Dorothy 
Quincy, his betrothed, and Samuel Adams. 



JOHN HANCOCK. 175 

69. It was to arrest Hancock and Adams that General Gage 
sent out the expedition to Concord on that day, which resulted in the 
Battle of Lexington. 

70. Being warned of their danger by Paul Revere, the two pa- 
triots succeeded in making their escape to Woburn. 

71. After the Battle of Lexington, and a few days before that of 
Bunker Hill, on June 12, 1775, Governor Gage offered pardon to the 
rebels. But he especially excepted Hancock and Adams from this 
amnesty, because their offences were "of too flagitious a nature to 
admit of any other consideration than that of condign punishment." 

72. On August 28, 1775, Hancock was married to Miss Dorothy 
Quincy, the daughter of a prominent citizen of Boston, at Fairfield, 
Conn. 

73. But two children) were born to them, Lydia Henchman and 
John George Washington. 

74. Hancock was a delegate from Massachusetts to the Conti- 
nental Coilgress from 1775 till 1780, and from 1785 till 1786. He 
served as President of that distinguished body from May, 1775, till 
October, 1777. 

75. He was well fitted to succeed Peyton Randolph of Virginia, 
its first President, by his experience as moderator of the town meet- 
ings of Boston, and as the President of the Provincial Congress of 
Massachusetts. 

76. The elegance and dignity of his manners also enabled him 
to fill the post assigned him with graceful ease. He was always im- 
partial and quick of apprehension, and ever commanded the respect 
of Congress. 

"JT. "When the Declaration of Independence was first published 
it bore only John Hancock's name as President." 

78. He wrote his signature in such bold characters, that he 
could say with a smile, as he laid down his pen, "There, John Bull 
may read my name without spectacles." 

79. He was commissioned Major General of the Massachusetts 
Militia in 1776, and commanded the contingent of that State in 1778 
in the expedition against the British in Rhode Island. 

80. He was elected a member of the Massachusetts Constitu- 
tional Convention in 1780. During the same year he was elected 
Governor of Massachusetts, and was re-elected annually until 1785. 

81. He then declined a re-election, but in 1787 has was again 
chosen Governor, and was re-elected annually until his death. 

82. In 1788 he was a member of the convention which ratified 
the Federal Constitution. The opposition to the Constitution was 
great in Massachusetts, and it seemed as though the consent of the 
State would be withheld. 



176 JOHN HANCOCK. 

83. Mr. Hancock was chosen President of the Convention, but 
did not attend its sessions until during the last week. 

84. He then threw the whole weight of his influence along with 
Samuel Adams, in favor of its ratification, with certain amendments, 
which afterwards were incorporated into the Constitution. 

85. By a small majority of nineteen out of three hundred and 
fifty-five votes, was the ratification secured. 

86. The action of Massachusetts was hailed with great joy . 
throughout the States. General Washington expressed his heartfelt 
satisfaction that the important State of Massachusetts had acceded 
to the Union. 

87. On the 8th of October, 1793. Governor Hancock died sudden- 
ly at his residence in Boston, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. His 
body lay in state for several days, and his funeral was conducted 
with great pomp, amid the sincere regret of the people of Boston, to 
whom he had proved a kind and liberal friend. 

88. Having no children to inherit his fortune, he bestowed a 
large part of his wealth upon charitable and benevolent objects. 

8g. Thus lived and died. ]o\in ]:{3incoc\i, " The Dignified Cava- 
lier ojf A?fierican Liberty." 

AN EVENING WITH JOHN HANCOCK. 

1. Musical Selections. 

2. Brief Essay — The founding of Harvard University, and some 
of its distinguished early graduates. 

3. Sketch of Governor Hutchinson, 

4. Music — Instrumental or Vocal. 

5. Recitation — Portion of the Oration of John Hancock on the 
Boston Massacre. 

6. Essay — Was John Hancock a smuggler? 

7. Music. 

8. Recitation — Speech of Col. Barre. 
Q. Anecdotes of John Hancock. 

10. Music. 

11. Song — "America." 

SUBJECTS FOR SPECIAL STUDY. 

/. Hancock's youth and his opportunities for social advancemetit 
hy espousing the cause of Great Britain. 

2. His connection with Harvard College. 

J. The coftditiojt of the Colonies in 1773. 

4. The results of the American Revolution on France and other 
Europeatt nations. 

J. The work done by the Continetital Congress during the Revo- 
lution and the legislation advocated by Hancock. 



JOHN HANCOCK. 177 

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW. 

IV/ien and ivJtcre was Ifancock born / 1 1 'hat kind of a yotith was 
he? What were his literary abilities? IV lie re was he educated? 
IVhen did he comjne7ice his business career with his uncle? IVhen 
did he go to England? What did he witness while there? What 
event happened soon after his return to America? 

What great contrast was there between Hancock and Samuel 
Adams? Describe the social life of Hancock? Did Jtis social life in- 
terfere with his business? When did Hancock begin his political ca- 
reer? Repeat what Adams said of him. Give an account of Han- 
cock's trouble with Harvard College. Explain why Ha^icock was 
not a smuggler. 

Who offered to bribe Hancock to the royal cause, and how? Ex- 
plain why the seizing of the sloop "Liberty'' was the indirect cause of 
the war of the Revolutio7i ? How did Hancock celebrate the repeal of 
the Stajup Act? liViat part did Hancock have in the destruction of 
tea in Bosto7i Harbor? How many zuere eJtgaged in the destruction 
of the tea? Explain the Boston Massacre. 

When was Hancock chosen President of the Provincial Congress 
of Massachusetts? Why was the Provincial Congress organized, aiid 
where didit first meet? What were its powers and duties? if 'ho was 
Dorothy Quincy? Describe Lexington, A/ass., in 1773? 

Why did the people ask Hancock and Adams to remain in Lex- 
ington on the evening in April, 177s? U7io warned Hancock of the 
approach of the British ? When was Hancock chosen President of the 
Continental Congress? Repeat the reinark of Afr. Harrison while 
conducting him to the chair. What was his answer in regard to the 
proposition of bombarding Boston? What did he say when affixing 
his signature to the Declaration of Independence? When was Han- 
cock married? When was he a soldier? When Governor of Massa- 
chusetts, and how long? How many children did he have? Relate 
the tilt of etiquette between Hancock and President Washingtoji ? 
1 1 'hat were Hancock's ch ief faults ? I Vhat were his greatest virtues ? 
For official capacity what was he best adapted? When did he die? 



CHRONOLOGICAL EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF JOHN HANCOCK. 

1737 Born in Quincy, Mass., Jan. 12. 

1744 Graduated from Harvard Collee^e. 

1745 Engaged in his uncle's service in Boston. 

1760 Entrusted with a mission to England; witnessed the coronation 

of George IH. 

1 76 1 Death of his uncle leaves him a vast fortune. 

1765 Passage of Stamp Act, March 22, Stamp Act goes into effect, 

November. 

1766 Chosen a member of the Massachusetts General Assembly. 

Hancock celebrates repeal of Stamp Act, May 13. Rock- 
ingham cabinet dissolved, Aug. 2. 



I7.S' JOHN HANCOCK. 

1767 1)111 iiiiposinj:]^ tax on glass, paper, etc., passed June 2q. 

I7(')S Sci/ure of Hancock's sloop, "Liberty." Famous Circular Let- 
ter issued by Adams. 

1770 Boston Massacre, March 5. All duties except on tea repealed, 
April 12. 

1773 Destructi.,n of tea in Boston Harbor, Dec. 16. 

1774 Hancock made a member of the Committee on Correspond- 

ence. In a public speech recommends a general Congress 
of Deputies (or Continental Congress), March 5. Chosen 
President of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress at 
Concord, Mass. Provincial Congress votes to enroll 12,000 
militia, Nov. 29. 

1775 Warned by Paul Revere at Lexington, April 19. Chosen 

President of the Continental Congress, May 24. Married 
Miss Dorothy Quincy at Fairfield, Conn., Aug. 28. 

1776 Signed the Declaration of Independence, July 4. 

1777 Resigned his seat in the Continental Congress. 

1778 Major General of the Massachusetts Militia. Federal Consti- 

tution ratified by Massachusetts at Boston, Jan. 9. 
1780 Chosen First Governoi of Massachusetts. 
1793 Died at Quincy, Mass., Oct. 8. n^.^ 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



For those who wish to read extensively the following works are 
especially commended: 

"First Governor of Massachusetts." Burrage. 

"History of Harvard LIniversity." Quincy. 

"History of Independence Hall." D.W. Belisle. Published by James 
Chalten & Son, Philadelphia, 1851. 

"Our First Hundred Years." C. Edwards Lester, U. S. Pub. Co., New 
York. 

"Bancroft's History of the United States." Little, Brown & Co., Bos- 
ton, Mass. 

Lossing's"Field Notes of the Revolution." Harper Brothers, NewYork. 

"Our Country." By Benjamin F. Lossing. Amies Pub. Co., New York. 

"Great Events in American History." By Charles A. Goodrich. 
House & Brown, Hartford, Conn. 

Appleton's "Cyclopedia of American Biography." D. Appleton & Co. 
New York. 

New ICngland Register. Vol. 8, page 187. 

Atlantic Monthly. Vol. XI, page 693. 

"Orators of the American Revolution." E. L. Magoon. Baker & 
Scribner, New York, 1848. 



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